THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 
UNIVERSITY  OF 
NORTH  CAROLINA 


ENDOWED  BY  THE 
DIALECTIC  AND  PHILANTHROPIC 
SOCIETIES 


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lAZli 

1880 


'JML 


3a£roDe-  istSt  o  c 


This  book  is  due  at  the  LOUIS  R.  WILSON  LIBRARY  on  the 
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Form  No.  513 

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THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 
UNIVERSITY  OF 
NORTH  CAROLINA 


ENDOWED  BY  THB 
DIALECTIC  AND  PHILANTHROPIC 
SOCIETIES 


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1880 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


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To  the  IRISH  IN  AMERICA,— 


who,  devoted  citizens  of  that  great  country  which  ha? 
afforded  an  asylum  and  given  a  home  to  millions  of 
their  race,  cherish  a  fond  attachment  to  the 
dear  old  land  of  their  birth  and  their 
fathers,  and  reflect  credit  upon 
it  by  their  virtues, — 
this  volume  is 
dedicated 

by 


THE  AUTIIOP  • 


679370 


M| 


T  H  E 


Irish 


BY 

JOHN  FRANCIS  MAGUIRE,  M.  P., 

wraon  OP  “ROME  AND  ITS  RULER;”  “FATHER  MATHEW,  A  BIOGRAPHY  E  TO. 


-  ElS* 

. .  X(b 

FOURTH  EDITION. 


NEW  YORK: 

D.  &  J.  SADLIER  &  CO..  31  BARCLAY  STREET 

MONTREAL: 

CORNER  NOTRE- DAME  AND  ST.  FRANCIS  XAVIER  STREETS. 


712 

\%%0 


18  80. 


PREFACE. 


MORE  than  one  motive  influenced  me  in  the  desire  to 
visit  America,  and  record  the  results  of  my  impres¬ 
sions  in  a  published  form. 

I  desired  to  ascertain  by  personal  observation  what  the 
Irish — thousands  of  whom  were  constantly  emigrating, 
as  it  were,  from  my  very  door — were  doing  in  America  ; 
and  that  desire,  to  see  with  my  own  eyes,  and  judge  with 
my  own  mind,  was  stimulated  by  the  conflicting  and  con¬ 
tradictory  accounts  which  reached  home  through  various 
channels  and  sources  of  information,  some  friendly,  more 
hostile. 

I  was  desirous  of  understanding  practically  the  true 
value  of  man’s  labour  and  industry,  as  applied  to  the 
cultivation  of  the  soil  and  the  development  of  a  country. 
It  has  been  so  much  the  fashion  of  the  day,  either  to 
palliate  or  excuse  even  the  most  grievous  wrong  done  to 
the  poor  and  the  defenceless  on  the  plea  that  in  conse¬ 
quence  of  their  ‘want  of  capital’  nothing  could  be  hoped 
from  them  in  their  own  country,  and  that  emigration  to 
another  country  was  their  only  resource ;  or  to  despair 
of  any  material  improvement  in  the  condition  and  circum- 


VI 


PREFACE. 

stances  of  Ireland  until  4  capital  * — meaning  bullion  or 
bank-paper — was  by  some  means  or  other  introduced,  and 
applied  to  her  soil,  that  I  determined  to  test  this  pro¬ 
blem,  or  fallacy,  by  visiting  settlements  actually  in  their 
infancy,  thus  going  to  the  very  commencement,  and  seeing 
how  the  first  difficulties  were  overcome,  and  how  progress 
was  gradually  effected.  I  have  in  more  than  one  instance 
given  the  result  of  my  own  observation  in  this  respect ; 
and  where  I  had  not  the  opportunity  of  judging  for 
myself,  I  have  relied  on  the  accounts  given  to  me  by 
persons  both  intelligent  and  trustworthy.  In  whatever 
prominence  I  have  given  to  this  subject,  I  had  another 
and  distinct  purpose  in  view — to  combat,  by  argument 
and  illustration,  a  sad  error  into  which,  from  many  causes 
and  motives,  the  Irish  are  unhappily  betrayed ;  that  of 
not  selecting  the  right  place  for  their  special  industry 
of  the  Irish  peasant  lingering  in  the  city  until  he  becomes 
merged  in  its  population,  and  his  legitimate  prospects  of 
a  future  of  honour  and  independence  are  lost  to  him  for 
ever.  And  to  this  portion  of  the  volume  1  earnestly  im¬ 
plore  the  attention  of  those  by  whom  advice  may  be  use¬ 
fully  given  or  influence  successfully  exerted,  so  that  its 
lesson  may  be  urged  upon  such  as  have  still  the  choice  of 
a  future  before  them. 

I  desired  to  learn  if,  as  had  been  confidently  and 
repeatedly  asserted,  Irish  Catholics  lost  their  faith,  or 
became  indifferent  to  religion,  the  moment  they  landed  in 
America;  or  whether,  as  it  had  been  asserted  in  their 
defence,  they  were  at  once  the  pioneers  and  the  pillars  of 


PREFACE. 


Vll 


their  faith.  In  this  enquiry  I  was  mainly  influenced  by 
the  conviction  that  loss  of  faith  or  indifference  to  re¬ 
ligion  would  be  the  most  terrible  of  all  calamities  to 
Irish  Catholics  ;  that  the  necessary  result  of  that  loss 
of  faith  or  that  indifference  to  religion  would  be  fatal 
to  their  material  progress,  would  disastrously  interfere 
with  the  proper  performance  of  their  duties  as  citizens, 
and  would  be  certain  to  turn  the  public  opinion  of 
America  against  them.  I  have  devoted  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  following  pages  to  this  vital  subject,  and 
given  rather  an  elaborate  sketch  of  the  history  and 
progress  of  the  Catholic  Church  of  America — of  that 
institution  by  which,  humanly  speaking,  the  education, 
the  character,  the  conduct,  the  material  welfare  and 
social  position  of  the  Irish  and  their  descendants  are 
and  must  be  profoundly  influenced.  And,  indeed,  in 
giving  a  history  of  the  growth  and  progress  of  the 
Catholic  Church  I  was  representing  the  struggles  and 
the  difficulties  of  the  Irish  emigrant  or  settler  of  the 
present  century. 

I  was  also  anxious  to  ascertain  the  real  nature,  that 
is  the  strength  or  the  intensity,  of  the  sentiment  which 
I  had  reason  to  believe  was  entertained  by  the  Irish 
in  the  United  States  towards  the  British  Government ; 
as  I  considered,  and  I  hold  rightly,  that  the  existence 
of  a  strong  sentiment  or  feeling  of  hostility  is  a  far 
more  serious  cause  of  danger,  in  case  of  future  misun¬ 
derstanding  or  complication,  than  any  organisation, 
however  apparently  extensive  or  formidable.  1  have 


PREFACE. 


•  •  • 

VL11 

given  the  results  of  my  impressions  and  information 
freely  and  without  disguise.  What  I  have  stated  will 
necessarily  be  judged  of  from  different  points  of  view  ; 
but  of  this  I  feel  certain,  that  did  I  not  write  what  T 
know  to  be  the  truth,  I  should  not  be  acting  with 
honesty  ;  and  that  disguise  and  concealment  would  be 
far  more  prejudicial  than  £  open  and  advised  speaking.’ 

I  shall  now  only  express,  in  one  comprehensive  ac¬ 
knowledgment,  my  deep  sense  of  gratitude  for  the  many 
courtesies,  and  kindnesses,  and  acts  of  friendship,  which 
I  received  on  all  sides  during  a  protracted  and  varied 
tour. 

The  book — The  Irish  in  Jhncrica — is  now  delivered 
up  to  the  judgment  of  the  reader,  with  all  its  imper¬ 
fections  on  its  head. 


London:  November  27,  1867. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAUE, 

Difference  of  the  Position  of  the  Irish  in  the  Old  Country,  and  the 
New — Difference  in  the  Countries — Power  and  Dignity  of  Labour — 

The  Irish  Element  strong  in  Halifax — Their  Progress — The  Value  of 
a  ‘Lot’ — No  Snobbishness — The  Secret  of  Prosperity — The  Poor’s 
Asylum — Cause  of  Poverty— Catholic  Church  in  Nova  Scotia — Sick 
‘Calls’ — A  Martyr  to  Duty — No  State  Church — Real  Religious 
Equality— Its  Advantages — Pictou — My  Friend  Peter — Peter  shows 
the  Lions — At  the  Mines — Irish  everywhere — A  family  Party — 
Nova  Scotia  as  a  Home  for  Emigrants .  1 

CHAPTER  II. 

Prince  Edward  Island — How  the  Irish  came — Visit  to  an  Irish  Settle¬ 
ment — Prosperity  of  the  Irish — A  Justice  of  the  Peace — The  Land 
Question — What  the  Tenant  claims — The  Tenant  League  and  the 
Government — ‘Confiscation’  profitable  to  the  Government,  and 
beneficial  to  the  People — A  Scotch  Bishop’s  testimony  to  the  Irish 
— The  Irish  and  their  Pastors — The  Sisters  of  Notre  Dame— A 
graceful  Gift .  29 

CHAPTER  II  . 

Scene  in  the  Lords — The  Irish  Race  despaired  of — The  Settlement 
of  Johnville,  New  Brunswick — We  enter  the  Settlement — The  First 
Man  and  Woman — The  Second  Man  and  Woman— Celtic  Energy 
Jimmy  M’Allister — Mr.  Reilly  from  Ballyvourney — How  the  Man 
of  no  Capital  gets  along — One  Cause  of  Success — Mass  in  the 
Forest — Neither  Rent  nor  ‘  Gale  ’ — Other  Settlements . 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Irish  who  settle  on  the  Land — Their  Success — Their  Progress  in 
St.  John — Three  Irishmen — A  Small  Beginning — Testimony  of  a 
Belfast  Independent — Position  of  Irish  Catholics — The  Church  in 
New  Brunswick — A  Sweet  Bit — Missionary  Zeal  Catholicity  in 
St.  John — Past  and  Present . 


76 


X 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  V . 

PAGE. 

The  Irish  in  Quebec — Their  Progress  and  Success— Education  en¬ 
tirely  Free — Montreal — Number  and  position  of  the  Irish — Their 
Difficulties  and  Progress — Beneficial  Influence  of  good  Priests — 

St.  Patrick’s  Hall .  91 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Upper  Canada — Number  of  the  Irish — How  they  came  and  settled, 
and  how  they  got  along ;  Illustrated  by  the  district  of  Peter¬ 
borough — Difficulties  and  Hardships — Calumnies  refuted — What 
the  Settlers  did  in  a  few  Months — Early  Trials — Progress  and 
Contrast — Father  Gordon — Church-building  in  the  Forest — An 
early  Settler — A  Sad  Accident — A  Long  Journey  to  Mass — A 
Story  strange  but  true — The  Last  Grain  of  Tea — Father  Gordon 
on  the  Irish  and  their  Love  of  the  Faith .  103 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Woolfe  Island — Jimmy  Cuffe — A  Successful  Irishman — Simple  Pat 
as  an  Agriculturist — The  Land  Question  in  Canada — Wise  Policy 
of  the  Canadian  Parliament — Happy  Results  of  a  Wise  Policy .  121 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  Irish  Exodus — The  Quarantine  at  Grosse  Isle — The  Fever  Sheds 
— Horrors  of  the  Plague — The  ‘  Unknown  ’ — The  Irish  Orphans 
— The  Good  Canadians — Resistless  Eloquence — One  of  the  Or¬ 
phans — The  Forgotten  Name — The  Plague  in  Montreal — How  the 
Irish  died — The  Monument  at  Point  St.  Charles — The  Gravemound 
in  Kingston — An  illustrious  Victim  in  Toronto — How  the  Survi¬ 
vors  pushed  on — The  Irish  in  the  Cities  of  Upper  Canada — The 
Education  System — The  Dark  Shadow — The  Poison  of  Orange- 
ism — The  only  drawback .  131 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Newfoundland — Monstrous  Policy — Bad  Times  for  the  Irish  Papists 
— How  the  Bishop  saved  the  Colony — The  Cathedral  of  St.  John’s 
— Evil  of  having  but  one  Pursuit — Useful  Efforts— The  Plague  of 
Dogs — Proposal  to  exterminate  the  ‘  Noble  Newfoundland  ’ — Wise 
Legislation  —  Reckless  Improvidence  —  Kindly  Relations  —  Irish 
Girls 


1G2 


CONTENTS. 


XI 


CHAPTER  X. 

PAGE. 

The  Irish  Exodus— Emigration,  its  Dangers  by  Sea  and  Land — Cap¬ 
tain  and  Crew  well  matched — How  Things  were  done  Twenty  Years 
since — The  Emigration  Commission  and  its  Work — Landsharks  and 
their  Prey — Finding  Canal  Street— A  Scotch  Victim— The  Sharks 
and  Cormorants— Bogus  Tickets — How  the  ‘Outlaws’  resisted 
Reform — The  New  System — The  days  of  Bogus  Tickets  gone— 

A  Word  of  Advice — Working  of  the  System — Intelligence  and 
Labour  Department — Miss  Nightingale’s  Opinion — Necessity  for 
Constant  Vigilance — The  last  Case  one  of  the  Worst. . . .  179 

CHAPTER  XI. 

* 

Evil  of  remaining  in  the  great  Cities — Why  the  City  attracts  the 
new  Comer  —  Consequence  of  Overcrowding  —  The  Tenement 
Houses  of  New  York — Important  Official  Reports — Glimpses  of 
the  Reality — An  inviting  Picture — Misery  and  Slavery  combined 
— Inducements  to  Intemperance — Massacre  of  the  Innocents — In 
the  wrong  Place — Town  and  Country .  214 

CHAPTER  XII. 

The  Land  the  great  Resource  for  the  Emigrant — Cases  in  Point — An 
Irishman  socially  redeemed — More  Instances  of  Success  on  the 
Land — An  Irish  Public  Opinion  wanted — Irish  Settlements  in  Min¬ 
nesota- and  Illinois — The  Public  Lands  of  America — The  Coal  and 
Iron  of  America — Down  South — A  Kildare  Man  in  the  South — 
Tipperary  Men  in  the  South — The  Climate  of  the  South — California 
an  Illustration  of  the  true  Policy .  237 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

California  of  the  Past  and  Present — Early  Irish  Settlers — Death  amid 
the  Mountains — Pat  Clark.  But  One  Mormon — The  Irish  wisely 
settle  on  the  Land — How  they  Succeeded  in  the  Cities — Successful 
Thrift.  Irish  Girls— The  Church  in  San  Francisco— What  a  poor 
Irishman  can  do . -  •  •  •  202 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

Drink  more  injurious  to  the  Irish  than  to  others — Why  this  is  so 
Archbishop  Spalding’s  testimony — Drink  and  Politics — Temperance 
Organisations — Hope  in  the  Future . .  281 


XII 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

Poor  Irish  Gentility— Honest  labour— The  Miller’s  son— Well-earned 
Success — No  poor  Irish  Gentility  here— A  self-made  Man— How  he 
became  a  Master  Baker— The  Irish  don’t  do  themselves  Justice 
— How  they  are  regarded — Scotch  Irish .  292 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

Remittances  Home— Something  of  the  Angel  still— How  the  Family 
are  brought  out— Remittances— A  ‘  Mercenary  ’—A  Young  Pioneer 
— A  Poor  Irish  Widow — Self-sacrifice — The  Amount  sent . 313 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

The  Character  of  Irish  Women  in  America — An  Unwelcome  Bap¬ 
tism — The  Universal  Testimony — Shadows — Perils  to  Female  Vir¬ 
tue — Irish  Girls  ;  their  Value  to  the  Race . . .  333 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

The  Catholic  Church — The  Irish — The  Church  not  afraid  of  Freedom 
— A  Contrast — Who  the  Persecutors  were — The  American  Con¬ 
stitution — Washington’s  Reply  to  the  Catholics — The  First  Church 
in  New  York — Boston  in  1790 — Universality  of  the  Church — Early 
Missions — Two  Great  Orders — Mrs.  Seton — Mrs.  Seton  founds  her 
Order — Early  Difficulties  and  Privations — Irish  Sisters .  / .  346 

CHAPTER  XX. 

Bishop  Connolly’s  Note-Book — Laity’s  Directory  for  1822 — Dr.  Kir- 
wan  previous  to  his  Apostacy — The  Church  in  1822 — Progress  in 
1834 — How  the  Faith  was  Lost .  370 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

Dr.  England,  Bishop  of  Charleston — Bishop  England’s  Diary — Bishop 
England’s  Missionary  Labours — The  Bishop’s  Trials — Bishop  Eng¬ 
land’s  growing  Fame .  381 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


Bishop  England’s  Diocese — ‘  Music  hath  Charms  ’ — Preaching  by  the 
Wayside — William  George  Read — ‘  Mister  Paul  ’ — Taking  a  Fresh 
Start — Father  O’Neill’s  Two  Hundred  Children .  892 


CONTENTS. 


XIII 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

PA  OK. 

Dangers  from  within  and  without — The  Lay  TrLstees — A  Daiing 
Hoax — Burning  of  the  Charlestown  Convent — A  Grateful  Ruflian 
— ‘Awful  Disclosures  of  Maria  Monk’ — Protestant  Verdict  on 
Maria  Monk . , .  405 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

Bishop  England’s  Devotion  to  the  Negro — The  Frenchman  Van¬ 
quished — The  Bishop  stripped  to  his  Shirt  —  Bishop  England’s 
Death — Spiritual  Destitution — As  late  as  1847 — The  Sign  of  the 
Cross — Keeping  the  Faith — Bishop  Hughes — Bishop  Hughes  and 
the  School  Question — A  Lesson  for  the  Politicians — The  Riots 
of  Philadelphia — The  Native  American  Party — The  Bishop  and 
the  Mayor — Progress  of  the  Church .  416 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

The  Know  Nothing  Movement — Jealousy  of  the  Foreigner — Know 
Nothings  indifferent  to  Religion — Democratic  Orators — Even  at 
the  Altar  and  in  the  Pulpit — Almost  Incredible — The  Infernal 
Miscreant— A  Strange  Confession .  444 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

The  Catholic  Church  and  the  Civil  War— The  True  Mission  of  the 
Church— The  Church  Speaks  for  Herself— The  ‘  Sisters  ’  during  the 
War_The  Patients  could  not  make  them  out— The  Forgiven  Insult 
— ‘  What  the  Sister  believes  I  believe  ’—The  Chariot  of  Mercy— 
‘Am  I  to  Forgive  the  Yankees?’— Prejudices  Conquered— ‘ That’s 
she  !  I  owre  my  Life  to  her  ’ — An  Emphatic  Rebuke  ‘  We  want  to 
become  Catholics.’ . 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

Catholic  Education— The  Catholic  Church  in  Advance  of  the  Age 
—Catholic  Teaching  favourable  to  Parental  Authority— Protestant 
confidence  in  true  Catholics— The  Liberal  American  Protestant- 
Catholic  Schools— The  Sister  in  the  School  and  the  Asylum— 
Protestant  Confidence  in  Convent  Schools — The  Christian  Brothers 
—  Other  Teaching  Orders — From  the  Camp  to  the  School .  488 


XIV 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

FAGK. 

Juvenile  Reformation — Opposition  to  Catholic  Reformatories— The 
two  Systems  Illustrated  —  Christianity  Meek  and  Loving— The 
Work  of  the  Enemy — Solemn  Appeals  to  Catholic  Duty .  510 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

The  Second  Plenary  Council  of  Baltimore — Protestant  Tribute  to  the 
Catholic  Church — Progress  of  Catholicity — Instances  of  its  Pro¬ 
gress — The  Past  and  the  Present — The  Church  in  Chicago  and  New 
York — Catholicity  in  Boston — Anticipations  not  Realised — Num¬ 
ber  of  Catholics  in  the  States — Circumstances  of  Protestant  and 
Catholic  Emigrant  Different — Loss  of  Faith  and  Indifferentism. . .  522 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

The  Irish  in  the  War — Irish  faithful  to  either  Side — Thomas  Francis 
Meagher  —  Why  the  Irish  joined  distinct  Organisations  —  Irish 
Chivalry — More  Irish  Chivalry — The  Religious  Influence — Not 
knowing  what  he  preached  on — Cleanliness  of  the  Irish  Soldier — - 
Respect  for  the  Laws  of  War — A  Non-combatant  defending  his 
Castle — Defended  with  Brick-bats — 1  Noblesse  Oblige  ’ — Pat’s  Little 
Game — Irish  Devotedness — The  Love  of  Fight — Testimonies  to 
the  Irish  Soldier — The  Handsomest  Thing  of  the  War — Patrick 
Ronayne  Cleburne — General  Cleburne  and  his  Opinions — In  Me- 
moriam — After  the  War — The  Grandest  of  all  Spectacles . . .  545 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 

Feeling  of  the  Irish  in  America  towards  England — A  Fatal  Mis¬ 
take — Not  Scamps  and  Rowdies — Who  they  really  are — Sympathy 
conquering  Irritation — Indifference  to  Danger — Down  in  the  Mine 
— One  of  the  Causes  of  Anti-English  Feeling — More  of  the  Cause 

”  of  Bad  Feeling — What  Grave  and  Quiet  Men  think — If  they  only 
could  1  see  their  way’ — A  Grievance  redressed  is  a  Weapon  broken 
— The  Irish  Element — Belief  in  England’s  Decay — War  with  Eng¬ 
land — Why  most  Injurious  to  England — Why  less  Injurious  to 


America — The  only  Possible  Remedy .  590 

South  Carolina — Bishop  Lynch’s  Letter .  025 

Essential  Importance  of  the  Foreign  Element  to  the  United  States. .  G3G 
Biographical  Sketch  of  Major-General  P.  R.  Cleburne .  G42 


*r 


THE 


IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 

t 


CHAPTER  I. 

Difference  of  the  Position  of  the  Irish  in  the  Old  Country,  and 
the  New — Difference  in  the  Countries — Power  and  Dignity  of 
Labour — The  Irish  Element  strong  in  Halifax — Their  Progress 
— The  Value  of  a  ‘Lot  ’ — No  Snobbishness — The  Secret  of  Pros¬ 
perity — The  Poor’s  Asylum — Cause  of  Poverty — Catholic  Church 
in  Nova  Scotia — Sick  ‘Calls’ — A  Martyr  to  Duty — No  State 
Church — Real  Religious  Equality — Its  Advantages — Pictou — 
My  Friend  Peter — Peter  shows  the  Lions — At  the  Mines — Irish 
everywhere — A  Family  Party — Nova  Scotia  as  a  Home  for 
Emigrants. 


CROSSING  the  Atlantic,  and  landing*  at  any  city  of  the 
American  seaboard,  one  is  enabled,  almost  at  a  glance, 
to  recognise  the  marked  difference  between  the  position  of 
the  Irish  race  in  the  old  country  and  in  the  new.  Nor  is 
the  condition  of  the  Irish  at  both  sides  of  the  ocean  more 
marked  in  its  dissimilarity  than  are  the  circumstances  and 
characteristics  of  the  country  from  which  they  emigrated 
and  the  country  to  which  they  have  come.  In  the  old 
country,  stagnation,  retrogression,  if  not  actual  decay — in 
the  new,  life,  movement,  progress  ;  in  the  one,  depression, 
want  of  confidence,  dark  apprehension  of  the  future — in 
the  other,  energy,  self-reliance,  and  a  perpetual  looking 
forward  to  a  grander  development  and  a  more  glorious 
destiny.  That  the  tone  of  the  public  mind  of  America 
should  be  self-reliant  and  even  boastful,  is  natural  in  a 

country  of  brief  but  pregnant  history — a  country  still  in  its 

1 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


infancy,  when  compared  with  European  States,  but  pos¬ 
sessing,  in  the  fullest  sense,  the  strength  and  vigour  of  man¬ 
hood — manhood  in  all  its  freshness  of  youth  and  buoy¬ 
ancy  of  hope.  In  such  a  country  man  is  most  conscious 
of  his  value  :  he  is  the  architect  of  his  country’s  great¬ 
ness,  the  author  of  her  civilisation,  the  miracle-worker 
by  whom  all  has  been  or  can  be  accomplished.  Where 
a  few  years  since  a  forest  waved  in  mournful  grandeur, 
there  are  cultivated  fields,  blooming  orchards,  comfortable 
homesteads,  cheerful  hamlets — churches,  schools,  civilisa¬ 
tion  ;  where  but  the  other  day  a  few  huts  stood  on  a 
river’s  bank,  by  the  shore  of  a  lake,  or  on  some  estuary  of 
the  sea,  swelling  domes  and  lofty  spires  and  broad  porticoes 
now  meet  the  eye  ;  and  the  waters  but  recently  skimmed 
by  the  light  bark  of  the  Indian  are  ploughed  into  foam 
by  countless  steamers.  And  the  same  man  who  performed 
these  miracles  of  a  few  years  since — of  yesterday— has  the 
same  power  of  to-morrow  achieving  the  same  wondrous 
results  of  patience  and  energy,  courage  and  skill.  But  for 
him,  and  his  hands  to  toil  and  his  brain  to  plan,  the  vast 
country  whose  commerce  is  on  every  sea,  and  whose  influ¬ 
ence  is  felt  in  every  court,  would  be  still  the  abode  of  sa¬ 
vage  tribes,  dwelling  in  perpetual  conflict  and  steeped  in 
the  grossest  ignorance.  Labour  is  thus  a  thing  to  be 
honoured,  not  a  badge  of  inferiority.  Nor  is  the  poor  man 
here  a  drug,  a  social  nuisance,  something  to  be  legislated 
against  or  got  rid  of,  regarded  with  suspicion  because  of 
his  probable  motives  or  intentions,  or  with  aversion  as  a 
possible  burden  on  property.  In  the  old  countries,  the 
ordinary  lot  of  the  man  born  to  poverty  is  that  poverty 
shall  be  his  doom— that  he  shall  die  in  the  condition  iv 
which  he  was  brought  into  the  world,  and  that  he  shall 
transmit  hard  toil  and  scanty  remuneration  as  a  legacy 
to  his  children.  But  in  a  new  country,  especially  one  of 
limitless  fields  for  enterprise,  the  rudest  implements  of 
labour  may  be  the  means  of  advancement  to  wealth* 


IRISH  ELEMENT  STRONG  IN  HALIFAX. 


h 


honour,  and  distinction,  if  not  for  those  who  use  them,  at 
least  for  those  who  spring  from  their  loins.  Labour,  rightly 
understood,  being  the  great  miracle-worker,  the  mighty 
civiliser,  is  regarded  with  respect,  not  looked  down  upon, 
or  loftily  patronised;  and  though  birth  and  position  and 
superior  intelligence  will  always  have  their  influence,  even 
in  the  newest  state  of  society,  still  honest  industry  appre¬ 
ciates  its  own  dignity,  and  holds  high  its  head  amidst  the 
proudest  or  the  best.  Therefore  America,  of  all  countries, 
is  the  one  most  suited  to  the  successful  transplanting  of  a 
race  which  has  in  it  every  essential  element  of  greatness — 
alertness  and  vigour  of  intellect,  strength  and  energy  of 
body,  patient  industry,  courage  and  daring  in  battle, 
cheerful  endurance  of  adversity  and  privation,  quickness 
of  invention,  profound  faith,  with  firm  reliance  in  the 
wisdom  and  goodness  of  God,  and  a  faculty  of  thoroughly 
identifying  itself  with  the  institutions,  interests,  and  honour 
of  its  adopted  home. 

And  in  no  city  of  the  American  continent  do  the  Irish 
occupy  a  better  position,  or  exercise  a  more  deserved  in¬ 
fluence  than  in  Halifax,  which  has  been  well  described  by 
an  enthusiastic  Hibernian  as  the  ‘Wharf  of  the  Atlantic.’ 
Forming  the  majority  of  the  population  of  that  active  and 
energetic  city,  they  constitute  an  essential  element  of  its 
stability  and  progress.  This  Irish  element  is  everywhere 
discernible,  in  every  description  of  business  and  in  all 
branches  of  industry,  in  every  class  and  in  every  condition 
of  life,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest.  There  are  in  other 
cities  larger  masses  of  Irish,  some  in  which  they  are  five 
times,  and  even  ten  times  as  numerous  as  the  whole  popu¬ 
lation  of  Halifax  ;  but  it  may  be  doubted  if  there  are 
many  cities  of  the  entire  continent  of  America  in  which 
they  afford  themselves  fuller  play  for  the  exercise  of  their 
higher  qualities  than  in  the  capital  of  Nova  Scotia,  where 
their  moral  worth  keeps  pace  with  their  material  prosperity, 
which  is  remarkably  great,  especially  when  considering  the 


TI1E  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


circumstances  under  which  the  far  greater  proportion  of 
them  arrived  in  the  new  world. 

Those  who  are  well  off  at  home  do  not  quit  it  for  a  new 
country ;  contented  with  their  present  position,  they  never 
dream  of  changing  it  for  one  which  is  sure  to  be  accom¬ 
panied  with  more  or  less  of  risk  or  hardship.  The  impelling 
motive  that  has  driven  millions  across  the  Atlantic,  and 
that  may  drive  millions  more  in  the  same  direction,  is  the 
desire,  so  natural  to  the  civilised  man,  of  improving  his 
condition,  of  obtaining  the  certain  means  of  a  decent 
livelihood — in  a  word,  of  making  a  home  and  a  future  for 
himself  and  his  children.  It  matters  little  to  what  portion 
of  America  reference  is  had,  the  same  impelling  motive 
has  added  to  its  population,  and  been  one  of  the  principal 
causes  of  its  progress  and  development.  Instances  there 
have  been  of  people  well-to-do  in  the  old  country,  deliber¬ 
ately  exchanging  it  for  the  new,  chiefly  with  the  view  of 
turning  their  means  to  better  account,  and  thus  securing  a 
larger  inheritance  for  their  children ;  but  when  compared 
with  the  vast  tide  of  emigration  to  which  America  is  mainly 
indebted  for  the  position  she  this  day  holds  among  the 
nations,  these  exceptional  cases  constitute  so  infinitesimal 
a  minority  as  to  be  scarcely  appreciable.  The  mass  came 
because  they  had  no  option  but  to  come,  because  hunger 
and  want  were  at  their  heels,  and  flight  was  their  only 
chance  of  safety.  Thus  the  majority  landed  from  the 
emigrant  ship  with  little  beyond  a  box  or  bundle  of  clothes, 
and  the  means  of  procuring  a  week’s  or  a  month’s  provi¬ 
sions — very  many  with  still  less.  Some  had  education, 
intelligence,  and  knowledge  of  business ;  but  of  this  class 
few  had  money — they  crossed  the  ocean  to  secure  that. 
Therefore,  when  in  Halifax,  as  in  all  other  parts  of  America, 
Irishmen  are  to  be  found  in  the  enjoyment  of  independ¬ 
ence,  and  even  considerable  wealth,  it  must  bo  evident 
that  their  success  is  attributable  to  their  own  exertions  and 
tliqir  own  merit. 


THEIR  PROGRESS— THE  VALUE  OF  A  ‘LOT.’ 


5 


Halifax  may  be  described  as  a  city  of  solid  prosperity  an  d 
steady  progress ;  and  tlie  Irish  not  only  share  in  its  pros¬ 
perity  but  assist  in  its  progress.  Thus,  for  instance,  a 
large  proportion  of  the  houses  of  business,  several  of  which 
would  be  worthy  of  the  proudest  capitals  of  Europe,  have 
been  established  by  Irish  enterprise.  One,  the  most  con¬ 
spicuous  for  its  appearance  and  extent,  is  the  property  of 
perhaps  the  most  eminent  and  honoured  Irishman  in  the 
colony,  who  bringing  with  him  from  his  native  country,  as 
his  only  capital,  character,  intelligence,  and  industry,  has 
not  only  realised  a  splendid  fortune,  but  enjoys  a  reputa¬ 
tion  for  worth  and  probity  which  is  the  pride  of  his  country¬ 
men.  In  the  rapid  conversion  of  Halifax  from  a  city  of 
timber  to  a  city  of  brick  and  stone,  the  Irish  have  their 
full  share.  Splendid  ‘stores’ — ‘shops’  in  the  old  country 
— and  handsome  mansions  have  been  erected  by  Irishmen ; 
and  where  the  Irish  trader  adheres  to  the  old  place  of 
business  or  the  modest  dwelling,  it  is  not  because  he  wants 
the  means  of  erecting  something  striking  or  costly,  but 
that  he  lacks  the  inclination  to  do  so,  and  prefers  the  sim¬ 
plicity  which  he  associates  with  his  success,  and  deems  in¬ 
dispensable  to  his  comfort. 

In  Halifax,  as  throughout  America,  the  Irish  necessarily 
form  the  large  proportion  of  the  working  population;  and 
when  these  men  landed  on  the  wharf,  they  had  nothing 
save  the  implements  of  their  craft,  or  the  capacity  and  wil¬ 
lingness  for  labour.  But  whether  skilled  mechanics,  or 
mere  day-labourers,  their  condition  is,  on  the  whole,  admir¬ 
able;  and  the  best  proof  of  their  good  conduct  is  the  pos¬ 
session  by  a  considerable  number  of  them  of  that  which, 
throughout  the  British  Provinces  and  the  States,  is  the  first 
step  in  advance — ca  lot  ’ — meaning  thereby  a  piece  of  ground 
on  which  a  house  is,  or  is  to  be,  erected. 

There  is  a  kind  of  magic  influence  in  the  possession  of 
this  first  bit  of  ‘  real  estate.’  An  evidence  of  frugality  and 
self-denial,  it  is  an  incentive  to  the  continued  practice  oi 


6 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


tlie  same  virtues.  It  is  the  commencement,  and  j  et  some' 
thing*  more  than  the  commencement;  it  may  be  caHed 
‘  half  the  battle/  for  the  rest  depends  on  perseverance  in 
the  same  course.  The  house  may  be  rude  in  construction, 
mean  in  appearance,  miserable  in  accommodation,  but  it  is 
a  house,  in  which  the  owner  and  his  family  can  live  rent- 
free,  for  it  is  their  property — ‘  their  own.’  AVith  sufficient 
front  and  sufficient  depth,  what  is  there  to  prevent  the 
owner,  in  time,  from  covering  the  space  with  a  fine  brick 
house,  with  its  attractive  shop,  and  as  many  stories  as  he 
pleases  to  raise?  Once  possess  the  £lot"  in  the  town,  and 
the  rest  is  comparatively  easy.  Every  year  adds  to  its 
value ;  and  if  the  owner  cannot  build  a  good  house  on  it, 
some  one  else  may,  and  the  owner  receives  in  either  case  an 
ample  return  for  his  investment.  But  in  thousands  of  in¬ 
stances  throughout  America,  the  Irish,  even  of  the  very 
humblest  class,  possess  lots  on  which  they  have  erected 
dwelling-houses  which  they  themselves  occupy;  and  in 
every  city  one  may  daily  behold  a  happy  transformation  in 
the  character  of  the  dwelling,  wherever  industry  is  com¬ 
bined  with  thrift  and  frugality.  The  structure  of  timber 
is  replaced  by  a  building  of  brick ;  and  so  the  family,  it 
may  be  of  the  mechanic,  it  may  be  of  the  labourer,  move  up 
in  the  social  scale  ;  and  the  superior  education  which  their 
children  receive  enables  them  to  improve  the  position  their 
father  had  acquired  by  his  good  conduct  and  good  sense. 
That  ‘lot’  is  a  wonderful  friend  to  the  Irish  in  America,  and 
this  the  wise  of  them  know  full  well. 

The  majority  of  those  who  now  constitute  the  strength 
of  the  Catholic  element  in  Halifax  came  without  funds  or 
friends,  some  literally  without  a  shilling  in  their  pocket; 

"w  -  honesb ,  xntelli  gence,  and  a  determination  to 
work.  From  the  humblest  occupations,  natural  to  their 
first  efforts  in  a  strange  place,  many  of  the  Irish  in 
Halifax  have  risen  to  wealth  and  influence.  Industry  and 
good  conduct— these  their  all,  their  sword  and  buckler 


NO  SNOBBISHNESS— THE  SECRET  OF  PROSPERITY.  7 


their  wand  of  magic  power.  And  as  they  rose  in  the 
world  they  carried  with  them  the  respect  of  the  com¬ 
munity,  by  whom  the  successful  architect  of  his  own 
position  is  justly  estimated  at  a  higher  value  than  the 
fortunate  inheritors  of  the  wealth  of  those  who  went 
before  them. 

It  may  perhaps  be  too  much  to  assert  that  the  trans¬ 
planting  of  the  Irishman  from  his  own  soil  to  a  new 
country  and  a  healthier  atmosphere  has  been  of  unmixed 
benefit  to  him  in  every  sense ;  but  in  one  respect  his  im¬ 
provement  is  unquestionable — he  is  above  that  shame¬ 
faced  snobbishness  which  he  too  often  displays  at  home. 
It  is  not  every  one  in  the  old  country  who  will  make  the 
story  of  his  own  elevation  in  life  a  matter  of  honest  pride. 
In  Halifax — in  America — it  is  different.  From  several  of 
my  countrymen,  of  different  degrees  of  prosperity  and  social 
standing,  I  have  heard  the  history  of  their  early  struggles 
and  ultimate  success.  Some  of  these  had  not  the  advan¬ 
tage  of  an  early  education,  and  were  self-made  and  self- 
taught;  but  they  were  men  of  great  sagacity  and  fine 
natural  talent,  whom  cultivation  would  have  well  fitted  for 
the  administration  of  public  affairs.  One  of  these  gave  as 
his  reason  for  not  accepting  an  office  which  had  been  placed 
at  his  disposal,  his  own  consciousness  of  the  want  of  early 
training,  which  was  unavoidable  in  his  case,  owing  to  the 
circumstances  of  Ireland  at  the  time  of  his  leaving  it;  and 
yet  he  dealt  with  the  question  of  the  hour — the  proposed 
Confederation  of  the  British  Colonies — with  a  breadth  of 
thought  and  a  mastery  of  detail  that  proved  the  very  fitness 
which  he  modestly  repudiated. 

‘Such  a  man  is  worth  5,000/.,’  ‘this  man  has  10,000/.,’ 
‘that  man  is  worth  20,000/.,’  ‘this  other  man  is  worth 
50,000/.,  if  he  is  worth  a  penny,’  has  been  repeatedly  said 
to  me  of  Irishmen  who  made  no  show  whatever;  but 
almost  invariably  one  important  statement  was  added: 
he  is  a  steady,  prudent  man/  ‘he  is  a  good,  worthy  man/ 


8 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


or,  Ctlicre  is  not  a  better  conducted  mail  in  the  province. 
The  golden  rule  of  success  in  life  was  thus  frequently  ex¬ 
pressed  :  ‘  To  get  on  here,  a  man  must  be  industrious  and 
well-conducted  ;  with  industry  and  good  conduct  any  man, 
no  matter  what  he  is,  or  what  he  has,  or  how  he  begins, 
can  get  on  here ;  but  not  without  these  essentials.  But 
the  man  who  drinks,  bid  him  remain  at  home — he  won't  do 
here.’  Spoken  in  Nova  Scotia,  as  the  experience  of  people 
of  all  ranks,  classes,  and  occupations,  it  is  equally  appli¬ 
cable  to  every  province  of  British  America,  and  every  State 
in  the  Union.  Industry,  sobriety,  good  conduct — these, 
under  favourable  circumstances,  raise  the  humblest  to  the 
level  of  the  great;  and  favourable  circumstances  abound 
in  America. 

A  visit  to  two  institutions  of  very  different  character  im¬ 
pressed  me  with  a  still  stronger  conviction  of  the  prosperity 
of  Halifax.  These  institutions,  its  Poor’s  Asylum  and  its 
Schools. 

The  number  in  the  Poor’s  Asylum,  according  to  the 
record  in  the  book,  was  354.  This  was  the  gross  number  ; 
but  the  number  belonging  to  the  city  was  only  120,  which 
was  small  for  a  population  of  34,000.  The  rest  had  been 
sent  in  from  various  places  in  the  province — some  from 
distances  varying  from  50  even  to  200  miles.  Strictly 
speaking,  there  was  not  an  able-bodied  male  pauper  in  the 
establishment :  those  who  were  there  were  the  aged,  the 
infirm,  the  sick,  the  helpless,  or  those  waifs  and  strays  that 
are  stranded  on  the  shore  of  life,  the  victims  of  their  folly 
and  infatuation.  Deducting  the  children,  64  in  number, 
the  insane  or  idiotic,  about  50  in  all,  and  the  sick,  infirm, 
and  aged,  who  were  the  majority,  the  remaining  were  but 
few.  As  the  Master  said,  there  was  not  in  the  house  a  man 
who  could  perform  a  day’s  work. 

What  to  do  with  our  workhouse  children — how  to  deal 
with  those  who  are  brought  up  in  such  institutions — is  one 
of  the  most  formidable  difficulties  with  which  the  adminis- 


CATHOLIC  CIIURCII  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA. 


11 


every  boy,  whatever  his  age,  neatly  and  comfortably  clad, 
and  having  the  appearance  of  robust  health.  Indeed  such 
was  their  appearance  that,  had  I  not  been  repeatedly  as¬ 
sured  they  were  the  children  of  working  men,  I  should 
have  taken  them  as  belonging  to  the  middle  class.  Bright, 
intelligent,  bold-eyed,  liappy-looking  boys,  the  right  stuff 
for  the  future  citizens  of  a  free  country  and  a  progressive 

community. 

*/ 

In  the  schools  conducted  by  the  Sisters  of  Charity  there 
was  the  same  air  of  comfort  and  neatness  in  the  dress  of 
the  female  children;  and  even  where  a  special  school 
might  happen  to  be  overcrowded,  there  was  an  absence  of 
ti  at  oppressive  odour  too  common  in  free  schools  frequented 
by  the  children  of  the  working-classes,  which  is  mainly  attri¬ 
butable  to  the  poverty  of  their  clothing.  There  was  nothing 
here  but  comfort  and  decency  of  dress;  good  proofs  of  the 
conduct  and  condition  of  the  class  thus  favourably  repre¬ 
sented. 

The  Catholics  of  Nova  Scotia  are  estimated  at  115,000, 
being  thus  divided — 30,000  French,  45,000  Scotch,  and 
40,000  Irish.  In  Halifax  the  Catholics  form  one  half  of 
the  population,  and  are  almost  wholly  Irish. 

Without  going  back  farther  than  the  commencement  of 
the  present  century,  an  incident  of  pregnant  significance  will 
enable  the  reader  to  contrast  the  position  of  the  Catholic 
Church  of  that  day  with  the  position  it  now  enjoys.  The 
house  still  occupied  by  Archbishop  Connolly  and  the 
clergy  who  officiate  in  the  cathedral,  was  built  by  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Burke,  or  Father  Burke,  as  he  was  familiarly 
called.  Dr.  Burke  was  a  profound  scholar,  and  eminent 
for  his  scientific  attainments.  Following  the  natural 
impulse  of  a  learned  and  zealous  priest,  he  determined  to 
establish  a  school  for  the  education  of  the  Catholic  youth 
of  that  day.  The  Penal  Daws  were  still  unrepealed;  and 
though,  from  the  growing  enlightenment  of  the  age,  this 
infamous  code  had  fallen  into  disuse,  it  still  afforded  a 


12 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


ready  weapon  to  the  caprice  or  hostility  of  the  bigot. 
Having  been  informed  of  the  intention  of  Dr.  Burke  to 
establish  a  school,  and  thus,  through  the  most  effective 
means,  elevate  the  condition  of  his  co-religionists,  the 
then  Governor  of  the  province  threatened  to  put  the  law 
in  force  against  the  priest  if  he  persevered  in  his  attempt. 
In  this  conjuncture  aid  came  from  an  unexpected  quarter. 
The  leading  Protestants  of  the  town  exhibited  their  oppo¬ 
sition  to  the  illiberal  policy  of  the  Governor  in  the  most 
effective  manner,  by  sending  their  own  children  to  a  school 
which  they  had  the  wisdom  to  appreciate  and  the  moral 
courage  to  support.  The  Governor,  whatever  the  perver¬ 
sity  of  his  bigotry,  dared  not  enter  into  conflict  with  the 
influential  allies  of  the  Catholic  priest;  and  so  Dr.  Burke 
and  the  cause  of  education  triumphed.  Young  officers 
frequented  the  academy,  to  learn  mathematics  and  the 
science  of  fortification  from  its  accomplished  principal. 
Strangely  enough,  the  Government,  whose  representatives 
sought  to  crush  the  school  and  the  teacher,  afterwards 
marked  its  appreciation  of  the  services  of  Dr.  Burke — who, 
owing  to  his  influence  with  the  Indians,  prevented  them 
from  joining  the  Drench  in  the  war  then  raging — by  con¬ 
ferring  on  him  a  pension  of  300/.  a  year.  It  need  scarcely 
be  added,  that  this  money  was  applied  to  the  advancement 
of  religion  and  enlightenment  in  a  young  and  struggling 
mission. 

The  progress  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  Nova  Scotia  was 
slow,  and  not  over  hopeful,  for  the  first  quarter  of  the 
present  century.  In  the  year  1816  there  were  about 
1,500  Catholics  in  Halifax,  and  save  in  a  few  towns,  where 
small  congregations  existed,  the  faithful  were  scattered 
over  the  province,  the  greater  number  hidden  in  the  wilds 
and  fastnesses  of  an  almost  unexplored  country,  and  far 
away  from  the  ministrations  or  influence  of  a  priest.  The 
Irish  carried  their  faith  with  them  into  the  forest ;  and 
though  many  of  them  for  years  never  heard  the  once 


PROGRESS  OE  THE  CIIURCH. 


13 


familiar  voice  of  tlieir  pastor,  they  cherished  in  their 
hearts  that  strong  attachment  to  the  religion  of  their 
fathers  which  is  one  of  the  most  marked  characteristics  of 
their  race.  As  an  illustration  of  this  steadfastness  in  the 
faith,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  the  present  Archbishop, 
when  a  missionary  priest,  cn  one  occasion  baptised  eight 
children  of  an  Irish  family  in  the  midst  of  the  woods. 
The  father  had  not  seen  a  priest  more  than  twice  in  twenty 
years  ;  and  what  rendered  his  fidelity  the  more  remarkable 
was  the  fact  that  he  had  married  a  Baptist,  who  did  not 
regard  with  much  favour  the  creed  of  her  Catholic  hus¬ 
band.  This  was  as  late  as  1842,  wdien  there  were  but  five 
priests  in  Halifax,  and  fourteen  or  fifteen  in  the  entire 
diocese.  The  necessary  intermarriage  of  Irish  Catholics 
with  members  of  various  Protestant  sects  caused  many 
of  the  former  to  lose  the  faith.  No  chapel,  no  priest, 
no  mass,  no  administration  of  sacraments ;  nor,  from  the 
special  circumstances  of  a  country  in  which  education  had 
only  ceased  to  be  penal,  were  the  Irish  emigrants  of  the 
early  part  of  this  century  remarkable  for  their  literary 
acquirements — hence  what  could  be  more  natural  than 
that,  while  the  parent  clung  passionately  to  the  faith 
for  which,  perhaps,  he  had  suffered  at  home,  his  children, 
whom  he  might  not  be  able  to  instruct  or  control,  should 
adopt  the  religion  of  their  Protestant  relatives  ?  Such,  at 
any  rate,  has  been  the  case  in  numerous  instances ;  and 
though  these  instances  are  fewer  than  they  have  been 
represented  to  be,  they  are  sufficiently  numerous  to  exhibit 
many  a  strange  contrast  between  the  old  Catholic  patrony¬ 
mic  and  the  modern  creed.  The  same  circumstances  pro¬ 
duced  the  same  result  in  many  parts  of  America. 

In  1820  there  were  but  few  priests  in  the  province. 
The  first  Bishop  of  Halifax  was  consecrated  in  Borne  in 
1816,  and  died  in  1820.  A  little  wooden  church,  dignified 
by  the  lofty  name  of  St.  Peter’s,  was  his  cathedral.  On  ks 
eite  a  building  more  suited  to  the  increasing  wants  and 


14 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA 


growing  importance  of  the  Catholic  body  was  erected  in 
course  of  time ;  until  eventually  that  cliurcli,  which  was 
regarded  as  a  splendid  structure  by  those  who  first  knelt 
before  its  altar,  gave  place  to  the  existing  -cathedral,  which 
is  one  of  the  finest  edifices  of  the  kind  in  America,  but 
which  is  to  be  further  extended  and  beautified  by  the 
addition  of  a  magnificent  facade  of  white  marble  from  the 
celebrated  quarries  of  Westchester,  in  the  State  of  New 
York.  The  wooden  ‘cathedral’  of  the  first  quarter  of  a 
century  was  a  fitting  type  of  the  Catholic  Church  of  that 
day:  the  grand  stone  structure,  some  180  feet  in  length, 
and  with  accommodation  for  3,000  worshippers,  fittingly 
represents  its  position  at  this  day.  Where  a  mere  log 
hut  was  the  only  temple  of  the  faith  in  Halifax,  four 
churches  are  now  insufficient  for  their  congregations ;  and 
a  new  building,  of  the  pointed  Gothic  order,  was  roofed  in 
previous  to  the  winter  of  1866.  Where  there  wrnre  but 
20  priests  in  1820,  there  are  over  70  in  the  present  year. 
These  have  the  spiritual  care  of  115,000  Catholics,  for 
whom,  or  by  whom,  more  than  100  churches  have  been 
built.  In  1842  the  province  was  erected  into  a  See,  and 
in  1845  it  was  divided  into  two  Sees,  the  Western  and 
Eastern.  The  Western  was  elevated  to  the  dignity  of  an 
archbishopric  in  1852.  Bishop  Walsh  was  created  the 
first  archbishop ;  and  on  the  death  of  that  prelate,  in 
1859,  Dr.  Connolly,  then  Bishop  of  New  Brunswick, 
which  is  still  within  the  ecclesiastical  province,  was  trans¬ 
ferred  to  Halifax.  Since  1830,  when  first  the  Catholic 
element  of  Nova  Scotia  may  be  said  to  have  acquired 
anything  like  the  appearance  of  strength,  more  than 
150,000/.  has  been  expended  in  buildings  for  religious 
and  educational  purposes.  Of  this  amount,  by  far  the 
largest  proportion  has  been  raised  by  voluntary  contribu¬ 
tion,  under  the  auspices  and  through  the  influence  of  the 
second  archbishop ;  a  man  who,  besides  possessing  a  good 
Sitcllect,  considerable  power  as  a  writer  and  speaker,  and 


‘  SICK  CALLS.’ 


15 


strong  common  sense — a  valuable  quality  in  one  wlio  lias 
at  all  times  to  place  himself  in  the  front — is  endowed  with 
indomitable  energy  and  perseverance.  Like  his  prede¬ 
cessor,  Archbishop  Connolly  is  one  of  the  many  prelates 
whom  Ireland  has  given  to  the  American  Church.  Besides 
the  four  churches  and  that  which  has  been  just  completed, 
there  are  in  Halifax  three  convents — two  of  the  Order  of 
Charity,  and  one  of  the  Sacred  Heart — with  a  House  of  the 
Christian  Brothers,  whose  new  schools  form  one  of  the  most 
conspicuous  of  the  architectural  ornaments  of  the  city.  Nor 
is  Halifax  without  a  Society  of  St.  Vincent,  which  finds 
the  fitting  time  for  its  benevolent  operations  in  the  depth 
of  the  hard  winter,  when  business  is  usually  dull,  employ¬ 
ment  consequently  not  so  general  as  in  the  milder  seasons 
of  the  year,  and  the  feeble,  the  sick,  and  the  improvident 
feel  its  rigour  most  keenly.  There  are  likewise  more 
purely  religious  associations,  whose  object  is  to  stimulate 
to  the  constant  practice  of  piety,  and  protect  the  young 
and  inexperienced  from  the  dangers  incidental  to  their 
period  of  life.  Thus  the  machinery  of  the  Church  is  so 
improved  by  increased  means  of  usefulness  as  to  be,  if 
not  fully  equal  to  the  spiritual  requirements  of  the  faith¬ 
ful,  a  complete  protection  against  those  contingencies  to 
which  loss  of  faith  on  the  part  of  individuals  or  families 
may  be  fairly  attributable.  There  is  no  longer  an  instance 
— at  least  in  Nova  Scotia — of  a  Catholic  who  has  been  for 
years  without  having  seen  a  priest ;  but  there  is  still  hard 
work  for  the  missionary  priest  in  a  territory  so  widely 
extended,  and  whose  population  is  so  thinly  scattered  over 
a  vast  space. 

Perhaps  the  hardest  and  most  trying  duty  which  a 
Catholic  clergyman  has  to  discharge  is  connected  with 
what  are  so  well  known  to  laity  and  clergy  as  c  sick  calls,’ 
requests  made  by  the  relatives  or  friends  of  the  sick  or 
dying  for  the  attendance  of  a  priest.  From  this  duty  the 
Catholic  priest  never  shrinks.  It  matters  not  what  the 


1G 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


distance,  the  hour,  or  the  danger,  though  the  sick  or  dying 
person  was  a  hundred  miles  away,  though  it  was  midnight, 
and  there  was  not  a  star  visible  in  the  heavens — though 
the  place  to  be  visited  reeked  with  the  deadliest  pestilence, 
the  priest  should  at  once  obey  the  solemn  summons.  The 
priest  who  shrinks  from  this  imperative  duty  is  unfit  for 
his  mission ;  happily,  an  instance  of  neglect  or  cowardice 
is  rarely  heard  of  in  the  Catholic  Church.  But  there  are 
circumstances  in  which  the  conscientious  discharge  of  this 
duty  is  attended  with  an  amount  of  individual  hardship 
that  can  scarcely  be  appreciated  by  those  who  inhabit  a 
country  at  once  thoroughly  cultivated  and  thickly  popu¬ 
lated. 

Father  Geary,  a  Halifax  priest — originally  from  Water¬ 
ford,  and  now  about  four  years  dead — frequently  attended 
‘sick  calls’  at  a  distance  of  a  hundred  miles  from  the  city, 
along  the  eastern  coast  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  did  so  without 
the  assistance  of  horse  or  vehicle  of  any  kind.  He  had 
literally  to  walk  the  hundred  miles,  and  this  he  has  done  as 
often  as  four  times  in  the  year.  As  the  tidings  of  distress 
reached  the  city,  generally  by  boat,  the  zealous  missionary  at 
once  girded  his  loins  and  prepared  to  set  out  on  his  long  and 
arduous  journey,  frequently  in  the  depth  of  a  Nova  Scotian 
winter,  when  the  snow  lay  two  feet  thick  on  the  ground, 
the  thermometer  was  many  degrees  below  zero,  and  a 
cutting  blast  blew  right  in  his  teeth.  There  was  not  in 
his  mind  a  thought  of  shrinking,  a  second’s  doubt  as  to  the 
necessity  of  then  setting  out :  a  human  soul  was  in  peril, 
and  the  priest’s  duty  was  to  reach  the  sick  person’s  bedside 
as  speedily  as  possible  ;  and  this  he  did.  Twenty  miles  be¬ 
fore  breakfast  was  ‘a  trifle’  to  Father  Geary. 

Within  the  last  ten  years  a  Nova  Scotian  priest  has  dis¬ 
charged  the  duties  of  a  district  extending  considerably  over 
one  hundred  miles  in  length  ;  and  while  I  was  in  Halifax  the 
Archbishop  appointed  a  clergyman  to  the  charge  of  a  mission 
Wiiich  would  necessitate  his  making  journeys  of  more  than 


A  MARTYR  TO  DUTY. 


17 


that  mail}*  miles  in  extent.  And  when  a  missionary  priest, 
in  1842,  the  Archbishop  would  make  a  three  months’ 
tour  from  Halifax  to  Dartmouth,  a  distance — going  and 
returning — of  450  miles;  and  would  frequently  diverge 
ten  and  even  twenty  miles  from  the  mam  line  into  the 
bush  on  either  side,  thus  doing  duty  for  a  population  of 
10,000  Catholics,  wrho  had  no  spiritual  resource  save  in 
him,  and  a  decrepid  fellow-labourer  on  the  brink  of  the 
grave. 

It  is  not  three  years  since  a  young  Irish  priest,  then  in 
the  first  year  of  his  mission,  received  what,  to  him,  was 
literally  a  death  summons.  He  was  lying  ill  in  bed  when 
the  ‘sick  call’  reached  his  house,  the  pastor  of  the  dis¬ 
trict  being  absent.  The  poor  young  man  did  not  hesitate  a 
moment ;  no  matter  what  the  consequence  to  himself,  the 
dying  Catholic^ should  not  be  without  the  consolations 
of  religion.  To  the  dismay  of  those  who  knew  of  his  in¬ 
tention,  and  who  remonstrated  in  vain  against  what  to 
them  appeared  to  be  an  act  of  insanity,  he  started  on  his 
journey,  a  distance  of  thirty-six  miles,  which  he  accom¬ 
plished  on  foot,  in  the  midst  of  incessant  rain.  It  is  not 
possible  to  tell  how  often  he  paused  involuntarily  on  that 
terrible  march,  or  how  he  reeled  and  staggered  as  he 
approached  its  termination;  but  this  much  is  well  ascer¬ 
tained — that  scarcely  had  he  reached  the  sick  man’s  bed, 
and  performed  the  functions  of  his  ministry,  when  he  was 
conscious  of  his  own  approaching  dissolution  ;  and  there 
being  no  brother  priest  to  minister  to  him  in  his  last  hour, 
he  administered  the  viatacum  to  himself,  and  died  on  the 
floor  of  what  was  then,  indeed,  a  chamber  of  death.  Here 
was  a  glorious  ending  of  a  life  only  well  begun. 

Bermuda  is  included  within  the  spiritual  jurisdiction  of 
the  Archbishop  of  Halifax,  and  to  this  fact  is  owing  one  of 
the  most  extraordinary  instances  of  a  ‘sick  call’  on  record. 
A  Catholic  lady  in  Bermuda  was  dying  of  a  lingering  dis¬ 
ease,  and  knowing  that  further  delay  might  be  attended 


18 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


with  consequences  which  she  regarded  as  worse  than  death, 
she  availed  herself  of  the  opportunity  of  a  vessel  then  about 
to  sail  for  Halifax  to  send  for  a  clergyman  of  that  city.  The 
day  the  message  was  delivered  to  the  clergyman,  a  vessel 
was  to  sail  from  Halifax  to  Bermuda,  and  he  went  on 
board  at  once,  arrived  in  due  course  at  the  latter  place, 
found  the  dying  lady  still  alive,  administered  to  her  the 
rites  of  the  Church,  and  returned  as  soon  as  possible  to 
his  duties  in  Halifax ;  having,  in  obedience  to  this  remark¬ 
able  ‘sick  call,’  accomplished  a  journey  of  1,600  miles. 

It  is  the  opinion  of  many  candid  and  unbiassed  men  in 
Ireland,  that  the  existence  of  a  State  Church,  and  that  the 
church  of  the  small  minority  of  the  population,  is  injurious 
to  the  country  in  many  respects,  especially  in  preventing 
that  social  fusion  and  Christian  harmony  which  are  among 
the  happy  results  of  complete  religious  equality.  No  one 
who  has  been  in  Nova  Scotia  but  must,  if  not  utterly 
blinded  by  prejudice,  be  convinced  that  the  non-existence 
of  a  State  Church  and  a  dominant  religion  is  attended  with 
the  most  beneficial  consequences  to  that  colony.  There  is 
no  cause,  no  legalised  cause,  of  hostility  and  ill  blood,  no 
provocation  to  anger — no  grievance.  The  Catholic  feels 
himself  to  be  on  an  equality  with  the  Protestant,  towards 
whom  he  does  not  and  cannot  entertain  a  sentiment  of  hos¬ 
tility  ;  and  the  Protestant  is  pleased  to  know  that  his  Ca¬ 
tholic  fellow-citizen  regards  him  with  a  kindly  and  fraternal 
feeling.  ‘We  have  no  occasion  to  grumble  ;  we  are  able  to 
meet  together  and  go  hand  in  hand  in  all  matters  ;  and, 
in  fact,  we  are  the  happiest  people  in  the  world,’  said 
Catholic  Irishman,  whose  memories  of  his  own  countiy 
weie  full  of  bitterness,  but  who  enjoyed  the  contrast  the 
more  keenly.  ‘I  hold  the  opinion,’  said  a  Protestant  gen¬ 
tleman,  the  descendant  of  an  Irish  father  from  the  south  of 
Munster,  c  that  if  the  followers  of  a  church  will  not  sustain 
it,  it  is  not  worthy  of  being  sustained,  and  the  sooner  it 
falls  the  better.’  Pew  perhaps  of  this  Protestant  gentlo- 


REAL  RELIGIOUS  EQUALITY. 


19 


man’s  relatives  in  the  old  country  would  endorse  his 
opinion  ;  but  he  could  estimate  the  advantage  to  the  social 
harmony  of  his  country  of  not  having  in  the  heart  of  the 
body  politic  a  perpetual  source  of  mutual  exasperation  and 
bitterness.  From  persons  of  all  creeds  and  classes  I  re¬ 
ceived  the  most  gratifying  testimony  as  to  the  good  feeling 
existing  between  the  different  churches,  and  the  happy  re¬ 
sult  of  the  prevalence  of  this  Christian  sentiment.  ‘The 
Archbishop  has  done  much  to  promote  this  feeling,’  was 
frequently  remarked  by  Protestants  and  Catholics,  officials 
and  townspeople.  True,  the  Archbishop  has  done  much 
to  break  down  the  barriers  which  sect  will  create  under  the 
most  favourable  circumstances ;  but  had  there  been  in 
Nova  Scotia  a  State  Church,  and  a  dominant  party,  sworn 
to  maintain  it  at  any  cost  or  hazard,  not  all  the  wisdom, 
tact,  and  kindliness  of  so  eminent  and  influential  an  eccle- 
.  siastic  as  the  Archbishop  of  Halifax  could  successfully 
counteract  the  hostility  these  would  be  sure  to  engender. 

It  would  be  foreign  to  the  truth  to  assert  that  Catholics 
in  Nova  Scotia  have  not  their  difficulties  to  contend  with. 
They  have  difficulties  and  troubles,  but  they  are  in  a  posi¬ 
tion  in  which  they  can  endure  if  they  cannot  overcome 
them.  For  instance,  unscrupulous  politicians  will  occa¬ 
sionally  raise  an  anti -Catholic  cry,  that  for  the  time  in¬ 
flames  the  passions  of  the  unreflecting,  and  disturbs  the 
good  understanding  which,  as  a  rule,  pervades  the  colony. 
But  it  not  unrarelv  occurs,  that  the  same  politician — gene¬ 
rally  a  man  who  troubles  himself  but  little  about  religion 
in  any  form  whatever — who  thought  it  his  interest  to  excite 
ill  feeling  against  Catholics,  discovers  that  it  is  more  to  his 
advantage  to  stand  well  with  that  body ;  and  instances  are 
told  of  the  same  unscrupulous  party-leader  one  day  ca¬ 
lumniating,  and  the  next  making  overtures  to,  those  who 
can  at  all  times  materially  influence  the  result  of  an  election, 
or  even  the  fate  of  an  administration.  Nor  is  this  uttei 
dishonesty  and  shameless  want  of  principle  confined  to  a 


20 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


few  unscrupulous  individuals  in  one  British  Colony  ;  it  is 
much  to  be  regretted  that  the  species — whose  chief  clia- 
racteristic  is,  that  they  are  ready  to  sacrifice  everything, 
save  and  except  what  they  think  to  be  their  personal 
interest,  for  a  good  ‘cry’ — are  to  be  found  plentifully 
scattered  throughout  America.  Even  the  most  bankrupt 
politician  finds  ‘No  Popery!’  a  useful  cry — for  the  time; 
for  the  good  sense  of  the  community  wearies  of  the  folly, 
or  the  politician  has  probably  invented  something  which 
has  the  merit  of  novelty,  and  he  allows  Catholics  to  exist  in 
peace. 

The  Irish,  including  Protestants  and  Catholics,  are 
estimated  at  100,000.  The  larger  proportion  of  the  Protes¬ 
tants  were  originally  from  the  north  of  Ireland,  or  had 
left  the  United  States  after  they  had  achieved  their 
independence ;  and  their  descendants  now  possess  nearly 
the  whole  of  the  counties  of  Colchester  and  Cumberland. 
They  took  up  most  of  the  lands  from  which  the  French 
Acadians  were  banished  in  the  year  1755.  That  they 
should  be  prosperous  and  independent  is  consistent  not  011I3 
with  the  sturdy  energy  of  their  nature,  but  with  the  coun¬ 
tenance  and  support  which  they  received  from  the  colonial 
authorities  and  home  government.  With  them,  as  with 
their  brethren  in  all  the  British  colonies,  things  went 
favourably :  not  so  with  the  Catholics,  who  had  much  to 
contend  with,  and  everything  to  do  for  themselves. 

A  striking  proof  of  the  position  of  Irish  Catholics  in 
Nova  Scotia — to  which  the  vast  majority  emigrated  under 
the  most  unfavourable  circumstances — may  be  mentioned  ; 
namely,  that  of  the  2,000  Catholic  voters  in  the  city  and 
county  of  Halifax,  all,  or  nearly  all,  own  over  50/.  of  real 
estate,  and  but  very  few  of  them  claim  the  franchise 
through  the  annual  payment  of  a  rent  of  50/.  and  upwards. 


PICTOU.  MY  FRIEND  TETER. 


2i 

Tlie  necessity  of  taking  passage  at  Pictou  for  Prince 
Edward’s  Island  brought  me  to  that  town,  which  is  prettily 
situated  on  the  shore  of  the  harbour.  The  Irish  do  not, 
at  least  as  yet,  form  any  considerable  proportion  of  the 
population,  rhe  Catholic  congregation  being  little  more 
than  one  hundred  in  number.  But  it  would  be  difficult  to 
behold  anywhere  a  more  remarkable  instance  of  generous 
devotion  to  their  faith  than  the  Catholic  Irish  have  dis¬ 
played  in  this  place,  wrhere  they  are  so  numerically  weak. 
To  the  stranger  entering  the  harbour  the  most  striking 
object  is  a  well-built  brick  church,  with  lofty  spire  sur¬ 
mounted  by  a  gilded  cross.  This  imposing  structure — the 
first  actually  built  in  the  town,  though  a  handsome 
Protestant  church  was  being  erected  in  the  October  of 
1866 — is  the  work  of  the  small  Catholic  congregation, 
whose  zeal  and  liberality  may  be  estimated  from  the  fact 
that  it  has  cost  about  2,000/.,  the  greatest  portion  of  which 
was  supplied  from  their  own  narrow  resources.  In  an 

honest  compatriot,  Peter  C - ,  to  whom  I  speedily  became 

known,  I  saw  the  type  of  the  true-hearted  Irishman,  wdio 
not  only  maintained  the  character  of  his  faith  by  his  own 
conduct,  but  would  make  any  sacrifice  for  the  honour  of 
his  church.  Peter,  commencing  with  little  indeed,  had 
worked  his  way  with  resolute  energy,  and  was  then  a  pros¬ 
perous  man,  with  something  laid  by  for  the  rainy  day.  The 
new  church,  which  the  Archbishop  was  to  consecrate  in  a 
few  days  after  my  departure,  was  the  delight  of  Peter’s 
heart ;  and  from  Peter  I  heard  how  grandly  the  little  con¬ 
gregation  responded  to  the  appeal  of  their  pastor,  who,  his 
Glengarry  blood  notwithstanding,  had  the  fa  se  of  a  Spanish 
saint.  Peter  gloried  in  the  site,  at  once  beautiful  and 
commanding — in  the  solid  well-made  bricks,  and  the  manner 
in  which  they  were  laid — in  the  buttresses,  which  he  patted 
with  a  caressing  hand,  as  if  he  were  encouraging  them  to  do 
their  duty  faithfully ;  but,  above  all,  in  the  steeple,  which 
could  be  seen  far  and  wide.  ‘  I « collected  100/.  myself 


22 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


from  Protestants  for  it ;  and  what  is  more,  they  helped  to 
clear  the  foundations,  which  was  done  in  a  single  day.  ’Tis 
the  blessed  truth  I’m  telling  you,’  said  my  friend  Peter, 
with  emphatic  triumph. 

Peter,  like  all  sober  and  steady  Irishmen  whom  I  have 
met  with  in  America,  had  a  keen  relish  for  ‘  real  estate,’ 
and  being  already  possessed  of  an  odd  ‘  lot  ’  here  and  there, 
he  had  his  eye  on  other  bits  in  convenient  sites, — I  shall 
not  say  where,  as  in  that  case  I  should  be  deliberately 
violating  the  promise  of  strict  secrecy  imposed  on  me 
as  the  condition  of  his  unreserved  confidence.  I  trust 
Peter  will  have  gratified  the  object  of  his  honest  ambition 
before  these  pages  reach  Pictou ;  but  if  not,  he  may  feel 
sure  that  the  identical  4  bits  ’  will  never  be  even  indicated 
by  me  either  to  friend  or  foe. 

Among  the  lions — the  live  lions — of  Pictou  to  whom  I 
was  duly  introduced  by  Peter,  was  the  American  Consul, 
and  a  most  agreeable  lion  he  proved  to  be ;  courteous  and 
kindly,  as  all  true  American  gentlemen  are.  The  Major, 
for  such  was  his  rank,  evidently  held  Peter  in  high  esteem, 
and  Peter  repaid  the  Major’s  good  opinion  of  him  with 
liberal  interest.  Peter  had  previously  held  out  to  me  the 
hope,  based  indeed  on  his  own  confident  belief,  that  the 
Major  would  be  good  enough  to  favour  me  with  an  inspec¬ 
tion  of  the  many  strange  and  curious  things  which  he  had 
collected,  and  which  had  mofe  than  once  excited  Peter’s 
unaffected  amazement.  I  was  of  course  humbly  hopeful 
that,  through  my  friend’s  influence,  I  should  be  deemed 
worthy  of  so  great  a  favour,  though  possessing  only  the 
questionable  claim  of  a  stranger  and  a  traveller.  The  in¬ 
troduction  effected,  the  application,  made  with  modest 
boldness  by  Peter,  met  with  instant  success.  ‘Didn’t  I 
tell  you  how  it  would  be?’  whispered  Peter,  as  we  stood 
in  the  presence  of  the  accumulated  wonders.  A  nod, 
which  eloquently  expressed  ‘  You  did,  sure  enough,’  was 
received  by  Peter  as  a  satisfactory  reply.  The  collection 


PETER  SHOWS  ME  THE  LIONS. 


21 


was  really  interesting-,  embracing  many  natural  curiosities, 
including  fossils,  sliells,  minerals,  reptiles,  animals,  birds. 
§shes,  teeth  of  extinct  animals,  implements  of  savage 
warfare,  evidences  of  by-gone  civilisation,  and  a  variety  ol 
other  matters.  All  these  wonders  "were  explained  and 
rendered  intelligible  to  his  visitors  by  the  Major,  who 
favoured  us  with  a  sufficient  account  of  each.  Peter’s 
genuine  admiration  as  he  listened  to  the  Consul,  and  then 
glanced  at  me,  as  if  to  witness  the  effect  produced  on  my 
mind  by  the  tooth  of  the  megatherium,  or  the  fossil  with 
the  impression  of  a  plant,  a  shell,  or  a  reptile,  was  every 
moment  becoming  warmer  and  more  explosive.  His  ‘  Oh 
Major !’ grew  more  and  more  enthusiastic;  but  when  the 
owner  of  the  treasures  exhibited  in  glass  jars  the  various 
products  derived  from  a  particular  description  of  coal,  and 
Peter  was  assured  that  all  those  beautiful  colours  were 
produced  by  chemical  action  from  a  lump  of  coal  such  as 
he  held  in  his  hand,  his  ‘Oh,  Major!’  was  largely  tinged 
with  awe.  He  frankly  declared  that  he  had  never  seen 
the  like  in  all  his  life,  and  was  profuse  in  his  acknowledg¬ 
ments  for  the  kindness  which,  at  his  influential  request,  had 
been  conferred  on  his  friend,  my  unworthy  self.  The  Major 
pleasingly  varied  the  intellectual  treat  with  refreshment  ol 
more  material  kind,  to  which  neither  Peter  nor  his  com¬ 
panion  proved  insensible. 

Under  Peter’s  competent  guidance,  I  sauntered  through 
the  town  and  rambled  along  the  shore,  and,  with  Peter  as 
my  companion,  I  sat  on  a  piece  of  timber  within  a  few  feet 
of  the  water,  which  murmured  in  the  tiniest  wavelets  on 
the  beach,  scarcely  moved  by  the  soft  air  of  the  Indian 
Summer,  that  harmonised  deliciously  with  the  exquisite 
colour  of  the  sky,  in  which  grey  and  blue  were  blended 
into  an  indescribable  tint  of  loveliness ;  and  while  the  sea 
murmured  as  it  kissed  the  beach,  and  the  soft  air  brought 
with  it  a  sense  of  mental  repose,  I  listened  to  Peter,  who 
told  of  his  trials  and  difficulties  bravely  met  and  manfully 


24 


TtlE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


overcome,  and  gave  me  the  benefit  of  his  shrewdly  ex¬ 
pressed  opinions  on  his  race,  their  many  virtues,  their  lew 
but  dangerous  defects.  ‘This  is  a  fine  country  for  any 
man  that's  inclined  to  work,  and  able  to  work,  and  it’s  a 
man’s  own  fault  if  he  won’t  get  along,  and  be  respected, 
no  matter  who  or  what  he  is  ;  but  it’s  a  bitter  bad  place 
for  the  drunkard  anyhow,  whether  there  is  a  good  place 
for  him  in  any  country,  which  I  am  not  sure  there  is,’ 
added  Peter  doubtinglv.  Peter  had  an  eye  for  the 
picturesque  and  beautiful  as  well  as  for  choice  bits  of  real 
estate,  and  was  fond  of  the  views  to  be  seen  from  various 
points.  Seated  in  Peter’s  comfortable  ‘trap,’  gallantly 
bowled  along  by  his  wTell-trained  and  vigorous  horse 
‘Charley/  I  enjoyed  many  charming  pictures  of  land  and 
water,  enhanced  not  a  little  by  my  companion’s  intelligent 
comments  on  men  and  things. 

Peter  insisted  that  I  should  not  think  of  leaving  Pictou 
without  visiting  what  he  held  to  be  one  of  the  wonders  Of 
the  world — the  mines  at  New  Glasgow,  at  the  other  side  of 
the  harbour  ;  and  having  nothing  better  to  do,  I  closed  with 
his  offer  to  accompany  me  in  my  first  subterranean  adven¬ 
ture.  So  up  at  six,  breakfast  at  seven,  on  board  at  eight, 
at  New  Glasgow  in  an  hour  after,  and  then  on  to  the 
mines.  As  we  crossed  the  harbour,  Peter’s  glance  rested 
lovingly  on  the  red-brick  church,  the  gleaming  windows, 
•the  tall  spire,  and  the  glittering  cross.  ‘Well,  surely,  it 
does  look  beautiful,  out  and  out ;  and  only  to  think  how 
few  of  us  there  were  to  do  it!  Glory  be  to  the  Lord!  It 
seems  wonderful/  said  Peter. 

Arrived  at  the  Albion  Mine,  permission  to  visit  which 
bad  been  previously  obtained,  Peter  and  I  assumed  the  re¬ 
quisite  but  unbecoming  costume,  and  were  in  rapid  yet 
easy  descent,  under  the  cautious  guidance  of  the  head 
banksman,  an  Irishman  from  Wexford.  To  one  who  goes 
down  into  a  mine  for  the  first  time,  the  aspect  of  every- 
Liing  in  a  quite  new  world  is  necessarily  strange,  and  even 


AT  THE  MINES— IRISHMEN  EVERYWHERE. 


25 


startling.  Tlie  meteoric  lights,  tlie  long  and  murky  gal¬ 
leries,  the  lofty  chambers  faintly  illumined  and  replete 
with  dense  shadows,  the  rattle  of  the  cars,  the  cries  of  the 
drivers,  the  stroke  of  the  pick,  and  the  other  noises  of  a 
coal  mine  in  active  work — all  produce  for  the  moment  a 
bewildering  effect.  Below  as  well  as  above  were  Irishmen 
employed  in  every  capacity,  the  majority  engaged  in  the 
ordinary  manual  labour,  but  not  a  few  entrusted  with  posi¬ 
tions  of  responsibility,  or  employed  in  work  of  a  higher 
class.  The  manager,  Mr.  Hudson,  spoke  of  them  in  terms 
of  praise,  as  steady,  industrious,  sober,  and  trustworthy. 
‘There  is  a  man,’  said  the  manager,  ‘who  came  here  a 
labourer ;  he  has  charge  of  property  worth  several  thou¬ 
sand  pounds.  If  he  was  not  a  good  man,  he  would  not  be 
in  that  position.  That  man,  like  many  more  of  his  coun¬ 
trymen,  has  brought  up  a  family  with  great  care ;  and 
the  young  people  are  now  profitably  employed,  some  as 
engineers*  some  in  other  skilled  branches.’  Go  in  what 
direction  I  might,  I  met  with  a  countryman.  To  an  emi¬ 
grant  of  eighteen  years  back  I  imparted  the  latest  tidings 
from  Dunmanway,  in  Cork  county;  to  a  ‘boy’  of  thirty 
from  Connemara  I  wTas  able  to  communicate  the  agreeable 
intelligence  that  his  old  Parish  Priest  was  ‘alive  and 
hearty,’  which  was  received  with  ‘  more  of  that  to  him ;  ’ 
and  on  assuring  another  ‘  boy,’  not  long  from  ‘  sweet  Tippe¬ 
rary,’  that  the  ‘members  stood  by  the  people  in  Parlia¬ 
ment,’  he  prayed  ‘that  the  Lord  might  strengthen  their 
endeavours,  for,  faith,  the  poor  people  wanted  friends,  sur 
enough.’  The  Irish  took  great  pride  in  the  celebrity  of 
the  mine,  and  the  amazing  depth  of  its  working  seam, 
over  44  feet ;  which  was  to  be  ‘  shown  to  the  world  ’  at  the 
Paris  Exhibition  by  the  pillar,  37  feet  10  inches  in  height, 
which  was  hewed  from  this  magnificent  bed  of  coal.  They 
were  as  proud  of  that  pillar  as  if  they  were  the  owners  of 
the  mine. 

Owing  to  the  increasing  number  of  Catholics  at  the 

2 


26 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


mines — for  there  are  several  others,  including  the  Albion 
and  the  Acadian,  the  latter  the  property  of  an  American 
company — an  addition  was  being  made  to  the  Catholic 
Church,  which  is  conveniently  and  conspicuously  placed ; 
nor  is  it  improbable  that,  in  a  few  years  hence,  when  this 
mining  parish  is  more  perfectly  organised,  a  fine  building 
of  brick  and  stone  will  replace  the  neat  structure  now 
barely  sufficient  for  its  congregation. 

In  the  presence  of  Peter,  and  much  to  the  delight  of 
that  enthusiastic  Irishman,  a  Scotch  gentleman  gave  an 
admirable  account  of  our  countrymen.  Peter  glanced  at 
me  with  a  look  of  radiant  triumph,  and  demanded,  in  a 
manner  at  once  corroborative  and  clinching — ‘Didn’t  I 
tell  you,  sir,  there  wasn’t  a  single  blackguard  amongst 
the  entire  of  them  ?  ’  And  Peter  might  well  speak  with 
authority,  for  he  knew  or  was  known  to  nearly  every  man 
in  the  district. 

Peter  was  anxious  that  I  should  pay  a  visit  of  courtesy 
to  a  friend  of  his  in  Pictou,  but  appeared  to  be  somewhat 
doubtful  as  to  my  compliance  with  his  wishes.  ‘To  tell 
you  the  truth,’  said  Peter,  with  an  air  of  no  little  mystery, 
as  we  were  again  crossing  the  harbour,  ‘  he  is  an  Orange¬ 
man,  or  something  of  that  kind,  any  how ;  but  lie’s  from 
your  own  part,  and  I  know  he’d  be  glad  to  see  you — indeed 
he  let  me  learn  as  much  from  himself.  ’Tis  true,  lie’s  not 
one  of  ourselves,  but  he’s  a  mighty  decent  honest  man  still.’ 
Much  relieved  by  the  genuine  readiness  I  expressed  to 
meet  ‘the  Orangeman,  but ’a  mighty  decent  honest  man,’ 
our  return  trip  was  rendered  additionally  pleasant  to  Peter 
who  enjoyed  the  appearance  of  the  church  on  the  liill-sida 
with  more  than  usual  satisfaction.  I  paid  the  promised 
visit  to  the  sturdy  Protestant  from  Bandon  ;  and  not  even 
from  Peter  himself  could  I  receive  a  more  cordial  welcome 
than  from  the  former  inhabitant  of  that  famous  borough. 
The  whole  family,  parents  and  children — the  latter  ini  ffii- 
gent  and  nicely  reared— were  glad  to  see  one  from  the  oJd 


A  FAMILY  TARTY.  NOVA  SCOTIA. 


27 


country.  This  ‘  Orangeman,  but  mighty  decent  honest 
man/  brought  with  him  but  his  industry  and  skill  as  a  boot¬ 
maker  ;  but  being  steady,  sober,  and  honest,  he  was  doing 
an  excellent  business,  and  employing  several  hands.  His 
neat  drawing-room,  with  its  piano  and  pile  of  music,  bore 
the  most  pleasing  testimony  to  the  comfort  and  taste  of  the 
family. 

One  other  visit  I  made  under  the  auspices  of  my  friend 
Peter.  That  was  to  the  Poor-house,  which  offered  a 
remarkable-  contrast  to  similar  institutions  at  home.  It 
contained  four  inmates  !  who  formed  quite  a  cosy  family 
party,  and  seemed  to  take  the  world  and  all  its  troubles, 
including  the  vexed  question  of  Confederation,  with  philo¬ 
sophical  indifference,  or,  as  Peter  expressed  it,  ‘mighty 
easy/  A  fair  percentage  of  such  poor-houses  would  con¬ 
stitute  an  agreeable  variety  in  Ireland.  The  snug  family 
party  of  four  spoke  well  for  the  material  condition  of  this 
part  of  Nova  Scotia ;  and  if  it  did  not  prove  the  existence 
of  great  commercial  activity,  it  at  least  indicated  the 
absence  of  real  poverty. 

At  a  late  hour  at  night  I  went  on  board  the  steamer  for 
Charlottetown,  Prince  Edward  Island,  and  the  last  hand  I 

clasped  ere  I  bade  adieu  to  Pictou,  was  that  of  Peter  C - , 

who,  if  allowed  to  have  his  own  way,  would  have  placed 
his  ‘particular  friend’  in  charge  of  everybody  in  the 
ship,  from  the  captain  to  the  captain’s  ‘boy/  Indeed,  so 
considerate  was  Peter,  that,  had  I  only  consented  to  the 
process,  I  believe  he  would  have  had  me  labelled  as  well 
as  my  baggage.  In  the  last  moment  I  voluntarily  re¬ 
newed  my  promise,  that  I  would  not  disclose  to  mortal 
man  the  slightest  information  as  to  the  ‘  bits  of  ground 
upon  which  Peter  had  reposed  his  speculative  eye. 

Of  Nova  Scotia,  as  a  home  for  the  emigrant,  it  is 
necessary  to  write  in  guarded  terms.  It  has  the  power  of 
absorbing  a  considerable  amount  of  labour,  skilled  and 
unskilled ;  but  it  is  not,  like  other  of  the  British  colonies, 


28 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


or  the  States,  capable  of  withstanding  a  rush.  There  was 
a  want  of  labour  in  Halifax  in  the  autumn  of  18G6 ;  and 
in  other  parts  of  the  province  an  addition  to  the  labour 
supply  would  have  been  hailed  with  satisfaction.  Nova 
Scotia  does  not  present  the  same  inducements  to  the 
settler  that  are  offered  in  New  Brunswick  or  Western 
Canada;  still,  there  is  land,  even  cultivated  land,  always 
to  be  had  at  reasonable  prices.  There  seems  to  be 
a  habit  of  change  common  to  humanity  generally  at 
the  Western  side  of  the  Atlantic.  This  does  not  arise 
either  from  caprice  or  unsteadiness,  but  from  a  desire  to 
do  better;  in  fact,  to  take  advantage  of  opportunities 
which  a  new  and  yet  undeveloped  country  constantly 
offers  to  the  enterprising  and  adventurous.  Thus  the  man 
who  has  cleared  a  farm — literally  hewed  it  out  of  the 
forest,  hears  of  something  likely  to  suit  him  better,  and 
he  does  not  long  hesitate  about  putting  his  farm  in  the 
market,  and  selling  it  at  a  fair  price.  Or  his  sons,  yield¬ 
ing  to  the  spirit  of  adventure  so  common  to  the  youth  of 
the  country,  have  gone  to  sea,  or  migrated  to  Canada  or 
the  States,  and  the  father  has  thus  lost  the  physical  means 
of  working  his  land ;  and  he  also  sells,  in  order  to  realise 
his  capital,  and  perhaps  go  into  some  other  business.  Thus, 
by  this  constant  process  of  change,  the  path  is  opened  to 
the  new  comer,  who  has  only  to  save  a  little  money,  bide 
his  time,  and  seize  the  wished-for  opportunity  of  becoming 
the  proprietor  of  so  much  land  in  fee-simple,  to  have  and 
to  hold  for  ever. 

The  tendency  of  the  young  people,  not  of  Nova  Scotia 
alone,  but  of  most  of  the  British  colonies,  is  to  push  on  to 
the  States.  ’  Better  employment — perhaps  more  nominal 
than  real — and  a  wider  field  for  their  energies,  appear  to 
be  the  inducements  that  lure  adventurous  youth  from  the 
natural  attractions  of  home. 


CHAPTER  II. 


Prince  Edward  Island — How  the  Irish  came — Visit  to  an  Irish 
Settlement— Prosperity  of  the  Irish— A  Justice  of  the  Peace — 

The  Land  Question — What  the  Tenant  claims — The  Tenant 
League  and  the  Government — ‘  Confiscation  ’  profitable  to  the 
Government,  and  beneficial  to  the  People — A  Scotch  Bishop’s 
testimony  to  the  Irish — The  Irish  and  their  Pastors — The  Sisters 
of  Notre  Dame— A  graceful  Gift. 

NE  of  tlie  smallest,  certainly  not  the  least  interesting, 


of  the  British  colonies  of  North  America  is  that  of 


Prince  Edward  Island.  Though  not  exceeding  in  super¬ 
ficial  area  the  size  of  an  ordinary  Irish  county,  and  actually 
not  more  than  two-thirds  that  of  the  county  of  Cork, 
with  a  population  not  greater  than  that  of  the  city  of 
Cork,  this  beautiful  little  island  enjoys  the  advantages  of 
free  representative  institutions,  and  a  system  of  govern¬ 
ment  based  upon  popular  suffrage  and  amenable  to 
popular  control.  The  authority  of  the  Crown  is  repre¬ 
sented  by  a  Lieutenant-Governor ;  while  in  the  House  of 
Assembly  the  leading  parties  into  which  the  political 
world  of  the  colony  is  divided  have  their  recognised 
leaders  and  accredited  organs.  To  such  an  extent  is  this 
carried,  that  the  gentleman  to  whom  the  party  out  of 
office  delegates,  either  formally  or  by  tacit  assent,  the 
privilege  of  speaking  in  its  name,  is  described  in  the 
‘  Parliamentary  Beporter  5  (the  £  Hansard  *  of  Prince  Ed¬ 
ward  Island),  and  referred  to  in  debate,  as  £  the  Leader 
of  the  Opposition  ’ — the  Gladstone  or  the  D ’Israeli  of 
the  colony.  It  is  not,  however,  with  the  institutions  of 
the  island  this  work  has  to  do ;  but  this  bare  allusion  to 
the  form  of  government  which  its  inhabitants  enjoy  will 
be  found  necessary  when  noticing  a  movement  of  rather 
an  important  character,  fraught  with  consequences  of  no 


30 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


small  moment  to  tlie  future  of  a  people  whose  main  resource 
lies  in  the  produce  of  their  fertile  soil. 

To  the  general  population  of  Prince  Edward  Island 
the  Irish  bear  a  considerable  proportion ;  and  not  only 
are  they  to  be  found  in  the  principal  towns,  and  scattered 
over  the  face  of  the  island,  mixed  up  with  the  other 
nationalities — French,  Scotch,  and  English — of  which  the 
population  is  composed,  but  they  form  settlements  of  their 
own,  exclusively  Irish  in  race  and  Catholic  in  creed. 

People  rarely  migrate  to  a  strange  country,  and  face  the 
hardships  incidental  to  a  new  existence,  from  the  mere  love 
of  change ;  nor  do  the  comfortable  and  the  well-to-do 
usually  quit  their  agreeable  homes  from  a  spirit  of  adven¬ 
ture.  Necessity  is  the  grand  stimulus  which  impels  the 
European  to  sever  with  rude  hand  his  old  ties  of  home 
and  kindred,  and  quit  his  native  land  to  cross  the  ocean 
in  search  of  a  new  home.  Of  all  people  in  the  world  the 
Irish  are — or  rather  were — most  intensely,  even  passionately, 
attached  to  the  land  of  their  birth,  and  the  least  willing 
to  leave  it  for  another  country,  whatever  its  attractions. 
But  the  mass  of  the  Irish  who  quitted  the  shores  of  the 
old  country  had  no  choice  left  them :  what  the  process  of 
law,  too  often  accompanied  with  the  pomp  and  parade  of 
armed  force,  but  partially  effected,  was  accomplished  by 
the  resistless  influence  of  blight,  famine,  and  pestilence. 
These  were  the  chief  impelling  causes  of  that  rush  across 
the  ocean  which  has  been  one  of  the  most  extraordinary 
phenomena  of  the  present  century,  and  which  may  yet 
bring  about  events  well  worthy  of  the  gravest  consideration 
of  the  patriot  and  the  statesman. 

A  wave  of  this  tide  of  human  life  broke  upon  the  shores 
of  Prince  Edward  Island,  over  whose  fair  and  fertile 
bosom  were  scattered  thousands  of  men  and  women,  the 
majority  of  them  poor,  pinched  with  hunger,  scantily 
clad  ,  but  hardy,  patient,  enduring,  and  willing  to  toil. 
A  few,  a  veiy  few,  brought  with  them  a  little  capital, 


VISIT  TO  AN  IRISH  SETTLEMENT. 


31 


perhaps  half  a  dozen  pounds,  probably  not  more  than  as 
many  dollars ;  whereas  the  majority  had  scarcely  suifi- 
cient  to  purchase  their  first  meal  on  landing.  ‘For  one 
who  has  come  out  with  a  dollar,  ten  have  come  out  with  a 
shilling,’  says  the  estimable  Bishop  of  Charlottetown,  Dr. 
McIntyre,  a  mild  and  genial  Scotchman,  who  loves  and 
is  loved  by  his  Irish  flock.  Many  of  those  who  thus 
commenced  had  been  flung  on  shore  from  fever-infected 
emigrant  ships  in  the  time  of  the  Irish  Famine,  and, 
scattering  over  the  island,  had  worked  their  way  by  honest 
labour  to  the  position  of  independent  settlers,  even  owners 
in  fee  of  the  farms  they  now  occupy. 

Wishing  to  see  for  myself  one  or  two  of  the  Irish  settle¬ 
ments,  so  as  to  form  a  more  correct  estimate  of  the  actual 
position  of  my  countrymen  in  their  new  home,  I  readily 
availed  myself  of  the  kindness  of  one  of  the  shrewdest  and 
ablest  of  the  merchants  of  Charlottetown* — whose  capital, 
when  he  arrived  from  Ireland,  consisted  of  a  good  practical 
education,  keen  intelligence,  and  high  principle,  and  who 
is  now  admitted  to  be  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  prosperous 
among  the  business  men  of  the  island.  Through  his  kind¬ 
ness  I  was  enabled  to  arrive  at  a  satisfactory  conclusion 
on  a  subject  which  to  me  was  one  of  the  deepest  interest. 
From  a  very  early  hour  in  the  morning  to  the  dusk  of  the 
evening — with  the  aid  of  a  strong  horse,  a  light  vehicle, 
and  a  well-inf oi^ned  guide,  who  knew  every  inch  of  the 
road,  and  was  acquainted  with  almost  every  person  whom 
we  met  during  our  prolonged  tour — I  was  engaged  in 
visiting  and  inspecting  two  Irish  settlements,  occasionally 
entering  a  farm-house,  or  field  in  which  the  work  of  har¬ 
vesting  was  still  going  on,  and  speaking  with  its  hospitable 
and  industrious  owner.  Confining  myself  to  a  single  set¬ 
tlement — that  of  Monaghan — I  shall  state  the  result  of  my 
observations.  * 

The  Monaghan  settlers,  to  use  the  expression  of  one 

*  The  lion.  Daniel  Brennan 


32 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


who  knew  them  well,  ‘had  not  a  sixpence  in  their  pockets 
when  they  landed/  But  they  took  ‘green-wood  farms/  or 
tracts  of  land  entirely  covered  with  forest,  not  a  rood  of 
which  was  cleared  when  they  entered  into  their  occupation. 
Selecting  the  most  convenient  position  for  his  future  home, 
the  adventurous  settler  erected  his  little  log  cabin,  and 
naving  secured  that  shelter  for  himself,  and  perhaps  for 
his  family,  he  commenced  to  chop  away  at  the  tr^es  which 
overshadowed  his  lowly  dwelling,  until  the  semblance  of  a 
field — rather  an  opening  in  the  forest  studded  with  tree 
stumps — rewarded  his  industry,  and  stimulated  him  to  still 
greater  efforts.  By  working  occasionally  for  the  near¬ 
est  farmers,  the  settlers  wTere  enabled  to  purchase  pro¬ 
visions  and  other  necessaries  during  the  first  months  of 
their  arduous  struggle.  The  next  year  they  burned  the 
timber  which  they  had  previously  cut  down,  and  used 
their  ashes  for  manure,  and  round  the  stumps  of  what  had 
been  monarchs  of  the  forest,  they  planted  their  first  crop 
of  potatoes  ;  the  following  year  wheat  wras  added  to  their 
harvest,  and  in  a  few  years  they  began  to  have  a  farm — • 
not,  it  is  true,  without  hard  work,  and,  occasionally,  bitter 
privation  ;  but  the  prize — glorious  independence — was  well 
worth  contending  for,  while  its  possession  amply  com¬ 
pensated  for  toil  and  hardship  of  every  kind.  These  same 
men  who,  as  a  rule,  began  ‘without  a  sixpence  in  their 
pockets/  were  then  in  the  possession  of  100  acres  of  land 
each,  with  from  50  to  70  acres  cleared — much  of  the  land 
not  exhibiting  the  faintest  trace  of  a  tree  having  ever 
grown  upon  it,  while  the  recently  cleared  portion  and  the 
still  living  forest  showed  that  the  island  had  not  long 
before  worn  one  prevailing  livery  of  green,  only  varied  in 
shade  by  the  character  of  the  timber  and  the  nature  of  its 
foliage.  The  Monaghan  settlers  had  long  since  passed 
the  log-cabin  stage,  and  were  occupying  substantial  and 
commodious  frame  houses,  with  suitable  offices  ;  and  most 
of  them — these  Irishmen,  who  had  begun  the  fight  ‘without 


PROSPERITY  OF  THE  IRISH. 


33 


a  sixpence  in  their  pocket  ’ — had  brought  up  their  families 
with  care  and  in  respectability,  could  drive  to  church  on 
Sunday  in  a  well-appointed  wagon,  with  a  good  horse,  or 
a  pair  of  good  horses,  and  probably  had  what  they  would 
call  ‘a  little  money’  laid  by  in  the  bank. 

As  a  rule,  admitting  of  only  a  rare  exception,  I  did  not 
for  the  entire  day — during  a  circuit  of  nearly  sixty  miles 
— see  a  single  habitation  that  was  not  decent  in  appear¬ 
ance  or  that  did  not  evince  an  air  of  neatness  and  comfort. 
All  were  constructed  of  timber ;  but  they  were  well  glazed, 
well  roofed,  and  kept  as  white  and  clean  as  lime  or  paint 
could  render  them.  "We  must  have  seen  hundreds  of 
farm-houses  during  our  ten  hours’  tour ;  and  I  can  safely 
assert  I  did  not  perceive  more  than  half  a  dozen  which  be  • 
trayed  indications  of  poverty,  or  which  exhibited  an  appear¬ 
ance  of  squalor ;  and  these  latter,  I  am  happy  to  say,  were 
not  occupied  by  the  Irish.  Substantial  comfort  was  the 
prevailing  characteristic  of  dwelling  and  farm  building ; 
and  cattle  and  horses  and  sheep  grazed  upon  broad  acres 
from  which  the  stumps  had  been  lately  cleared.  And 
where  the  forest  no  longer  offered  a  shelter  to  the  house, 
or  a  background  to  the  picture  of  rural  comfort,  a  cluster 
of  trees,  judiciously  spared  from  the  levelling  axe,  or  de¬ 
liberately  planted,  afforded  a  pleasing  variety  to  the  eye.  It 
too  frequently  happens  in  countries  which  have  been  re¬ 
cently  reclaimed  from  the  wilderness  of  the  forest,  war  is 
so  relentlessly  waged  against  trees  of  every  kind,  which,  so 
long  as  they  interfere  with  the  free  use  of  the  plough,  are 
simply  regarded  as  a  nuisance,  that  an  air  of  barrenness, 
even  of  desolation,  is  imparted  to  the  landscapes ;  and 
after  the  lapse  of  some  time,  the  farmer,  whether  repenting 
of  his  desolating  vigour,  or  longing  for  the  shade  or  shelter 
of  the  tree,  plants  round  his  dwelling,  or  the  enclosure  in 
which  it  stands,  those  beautiful  objects,  which  ad  I  a  charm 
and  a  beauty  to  the  abode  of  man. 

There  are  people  at  homo  who  regard  the  position  of  the 


34 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


farmer  who  is  without  ‘capital’  as  desperate.  With  them 
capital — their  capital,  which  is  always  money — is  the  one 
thing  necessary,  and  without  which  all  else  is  worthless.  It 
were  well  if  these  narrow-minded  philosophers  had  an  op¬ 
portunity  of  estimating  at  its  right  value  the  greatest,  the 
grandest  capital  of  which  man  could  be  possessed,  especi¬ 
ally  in  a  new  country,  in  which  nothing  has  been  done,  and 
in  which  everything  is  yet  to  be  done.  Here  is  the  green 
forest,  the  home  of  the  squirrel  or  the  wild  cat.  For  the 
purposes’  of  human  hfe,  of  man’s  enjoyment,  that  green 
forest  is  unavailing.  Without  the  labour  of  man  not  all 
the  money  in  Threadneeclle  Street  or  Wall  Street  will 
suffice  to  convert  that  verdant  wilderness  into  pasture  or 
arable  land.  The  energy,  the  industry,  the  endurance  of 
man — of  the  penniless,  or  it  may  be  the  despised,  emigrant, 
— these  are  worth  any  number  of  millions  of  money.  Lack 
these,  and  silver  and  gold  are  as  worthless  as  dross,  as 
valueless  as  if  they  lay  in  the  depths  of  the  mine,  or  were 
still  incorporated  with  their  rocky  matrix.  Those  Irish 
emigrants  who  landed  in  Prince  Edward  Island  forty, 
thirty,  or  twenty  years  since,  had  to  go  into  the  forest  and 
fight  their  way,  rood  by  rood,  acre  by  acre,  and  win  their 
daily  bread  by  ceaseless  labour,  until  field  was  added  to 
field,  and  the  encircling  forest  was  driven  back  by  the  re¬ 
sistless  force  of  human  energy — by  the  power  of  the  same 
God-giving  capital  which  is  as  capable  of  making  the  old 
country — the  natural  home  of  that  hardy,  patient,  and 
laborious  race — bloom  like  a  garden,  as  it  is  of  hewing 
abundance,  beauty,  and  civilsation  out  of  the  wilderness 
in  other  lands. 

In  no  one  proof  of  progress  or  evidence  of  solid  and 
substantial  comfort  were  the  Irish  settlers  behind  their 
Scotch  or  English  or  native-born  neighbours.  Their  land 
was  in  as  good  condition,  there  was  as  great  activity  in 
clearing,  their  cattle  were  as  numerous  and  as  valuable, 
Iheir  hay  and  their  potatoes  were  as  good  and  as  abundant ; 


A  JUSTICE  OF  THE  PEACE. 


36 


there  was  not  even  the  suspicion  of  inferiority  in  anj 
respect  whatever,  whether  of  capacity  or  in  success. 

I  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  interior  of  several 
of  the  dwellings  of  my  countrymen — men  who  were  in¬ 
debted  wholly  to  their  industry  and  energy  for  all  that 
they  possessed ;  and  the  interior  in  no  way  belied  the 
promise  of  the  exterior.  Homely  comfort  was  the  pre¬ 
vailing  characteristic.  In  Ireland  tnese  men  would  be 
described  as  ( warm  farmers,’ or  ‘strong  farmers.’  Not  a 
few  of  them  had  bought  the  fee-simple  of  their  farms  at  a 
moderate  price,  and  they  then  held  them  by  a  title  as  good 
as  that  by  which  Queen  Victoria  holds  her  crown.  Were 
there  nothing  in  the  name  or  in  the  manner  of  the  settler 
to  denote  his  origin,  the  little  library — the  dozen  or  twenty 
of  Irish  books — stirring  prose  or  passionate  poetry — would 
be  evidence  sufficient  of  his  nationality.  The  wrongs,  the 
sorrows,  the  ancient  glories,  the  future  hopes  of  Ireland — 
these  are  the  most  acceptable  themes  to  the  expatriated 
children  of  the  Irish  race. 

There  was  life  and  bustle  in  every  direction,  the  farmers 
being  hard  at  work  getting  in  their  potatoes,  which  were 
large  and  perfectly  sound  ;  and  in  this  agreeable  work  men 
and  women  were  actively  engaged. 

*  Come,’  said  my  companion,  £  let  us  look  in  upon  a  friend 
of  mine,  who  by  the  way  is  from  your  part  of  the  country. 
He  is  a  justice  of  the  peace  too.’ 

Passing  through  a  spacious  enclosure  we  arrived  at  the 
house,  a  well-built,  comfortable-looking  dwelling,  where 
we  found  the  wife  of  its  owner,  a  comely  kindly  matron, 
with  all  the  natural  courtesy  of  her  country.  To  the  en¬ 
quiry  ‘  Where  was  himself  ?  ’  she  replied  that  he  was  ‘  out 
with  the  boys,  getting  in  the  potatoes.’  We  proceeded  in 
search  of  the  master  of  the  house,  and  had  not  gone  far 
when  we  saw  a  sturdy  strong-built  man  of  middle  age 
leading  a  strong  horse  with  a  cart-load  of  potatoes,  full- 
sized  and  of  healthy  purple  hue.  He  was  one  of  the  many 


86 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


thousands  of  liis  countrymen  who  landed  on  tlie  shores  ot 
America  without  a  pound  in  their  possession.  Like  them, 
his  capital  consisted  in  his  strength,  his  intelligence,  and 
his  capacity  for  labour  ;  and  so  successfully  had  lie  employed 
his  capital  that,  as  he  was  leading  his  horse  into  his  spacious 
farm-yard  that  day,  he  was  an  independent  man,  not  owing 
a  shilling  in  the  world,  and  having  a  round  sum  in  the 
bank.  Rubbing  his  clay-covered  hands  in  a  little  straw, 
and  giving  them  a  final  touch  on  the  sleeve  of  his  working 
coat,  he  favoured  me  with  a  vigorous  grasp,  such  as  would 
have  crippled,  the  fingers  of  a  fine  gentleman  ;  then,  after 
having  offered  us  a  hearty  welcome,  and  a  cordial  invi¬ 
tation  to  partake  of  his  hospitality,  he  fondly  enquired 
after  the  dear  old  country.  He  was  greatly  £  put  out 5 
when  he  learned  that  we  could  not  stop — that  we  had  to 
return  to  Charlottetown  before  night  set  in.  ‘  Not  stop  ! 
Oh,  that’s  too  bad  entirely !  Not  take  pot  luck  !  not  even 
wet  your  mouth !  Oh  my !  oh  my !  that’s  hard !  Well 
now,  I’m  ashamed  of  you  to  treat  a  man  so.’  But  go  we 
should  ;  not,  however,  before  the  brief  story  of  his  early 
struggles  and  their  crowning  success  was  had  from  his  own 
lips. 

What  a  contrast  did  his  air  and  manner  offer  to  that  of 
the  Irish  farmer  in  one  particular — in  its  manly  inde¬ 
pendence  of  bearing.  At  home,  the  tenant  is  not — at 
least  in  too  many  instances  is  not — certain  of  his  tenure, 
of  his  possession  or  occupancy  of  the  land  which  he  cul¬ 
tivates,  and  for  which  he  pays  a  rent  that  is  absolutely 
incredible  to  the  farmer  of  Prince  Edward  Island — indeed 
of  America  throughout ;  and  manly  bearing  and  inde¬ 
pendence  of  spirit  are  scarcely  to  be  expected  in  his  case  : 
possibly  any  special  manifestation  of  their  existence  might 
not  be  prudent  or  beneficial.  Quite  otherwise  with  his 
countryman  in  this  little  colony,  who  cannot  be  disturbed 
in  his  possession  of  his  farm  so  long  as  he  pays  the  rent — 
about  tenpence  the  British  per  acre  ;  or  who  Las  bought  it 


THE  LAND  QUESTION. 


37 


out,  and  feels  tliat  lie  stands  upon  liis  own  property,  of 
which,  he  is  the  undisputed  owner :  therefore,  while  clad 
in  his  homely  working  suit,  with  the  red  soil  sticking  to 
his  strong  shoes,  and  his  hands  rough  with  honest  toil,  he 
looks  at  you,  and  speaks  to  you,  as  a  man  should  address 
his  fellow  man,  with  modest  dignity  and  self-respect. 

Strange  that  in  this,  one  of  the  smallest  of  British  colo¬ 
nies,  very  grave  and  important  problems,  involving  the 
most  cherished  of  the  so-called  ‘  rights  of  property,’  should 
be  practically  solved  in  a  manner  not  only  in  accordance 
with  the  universal  public  sentiment,  but  with  the  sanction 
of  the  representatives  alike  of  the  people  and  the  Crown. 

From  the  days  of  the  Gracchi  to  the  present  hour,  the 
land  question — the  occupancy  or  possession  of  the  soil — 
has  been  a  fruitful  source  of  turmoil  and  embarrassment. 
It  was  so  in  ancient  Borne  ;  it  was  one  of  the  causes  of  the 
most  tremendous  social  convulsions  of  modern  times  ;  and, 
because  of  the  deep  interests  it  involved,  it  is  destined  to 
play  a  conspicuous  part  in  popular  movements  in  favour 
of  fundamental  changes.  Leaving  the  shores  of  Ireland, 
where  the  land  question  is  the  one  which  most  stirs  the 
heart  of  its  people,  I  cross  the  Atlantic,  and  reach  a  small 
island  of  which  not  very  many  in  the  old  country  have 
ever  heard ;  and,  to  my  amazement,  I  find  this  irrepres¬ 
sible  land  question  the  question  of  the  colony,  though  for 
the  moment  absorbed  in  the  more  immediate  and  pressing 
topics  of  Confederation  or  Non-Confederation.  I  had  sup¬ 
posed  that  a  ‘Tenant  League’  was  one  of  those  things  of 
which  I  had  probably  heard  the  last,  at  least  for  some  time 
to  come ;  but  I  learn  with  no  little  surprise  that  the  most 
troublesome  movement,  or  organisation,  which  Prince 
Edward  Island  had  witnessed  within  recent  years  was 
known  by  that  title,  and  that  its  origin  was  owing  to  a 
systematic  opposition  to  the  payment  of  rent.  The  Irish 
demand,  during  the  existence  of  its  Tenant  League,  never 
Went  beyond  ‘fixity  of  tenure,’  possession  of  the  land  by 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


S3 

the  tenant  so  long  as  lie  fulfilled  his  primary  obligation  of 
paying  his  stipulated  rent. 

Struck  1)}^  th<  similarity  of  the  name,  I  enquired  of  an 
intelligent  friend  what  were  the  exact  objects  of  the  colo¬ 
nial  organisation. 

4  Oh,’  replied  my  friend,  ‘  it  was  .a  combination  to  get 
rid  of  rent :  the  people  here  don’t  like  the  notion  of  pay¬ 
ing  rent ;  they  are  not  satisfied  until  they  have  the  land 
in  their  own  possession.’  The  answer  was  calculated  to  put 
my  moderate  opinions  to  the  blush. 

4  Then  I  suppose  the  rents  are  rather  oppressive  ?  What 
are  they  on  the  average  ?  ’ 

*  As  for  that,  the  rent  is  but  a  shilling  an  acre.’ 

‘  A  what  ?  ’  said  I. 

£  A  shilling  an  acre — yes,  a  shilling  an  acre,’  was  the  tran¬ 
quil  reply,  made  as  much  in  answer  to  my  stare  of  astonish¬ 
ment  as  to  the  exclamation  with  which  it  was  accompanied. 

‘  Why  how,  in  the  name  of  common  sense,  could  any  one 
object  to  such  a  rent  as  that — a  rent  inconceivably  small 
to  one  coming  from  a  country  where  the  rent  per  acre  is 
twenty  times,  thirty  times,  even  fifty  times,  nay,  in  some 
instances,  nearly  one  hundred  times  greater  ?  ’ 

‘  Well,  as  compared  to  rents  in  the  old  country,  it  is  no 
doubt  low ;  but  you  see  the  tenants  took  the  land  in  its 
wilderness  state,  and  they  had  to  do  everything  to  it  to  make 
it  what  it  now  is.  And  the  rent,  small  as  it  may  appear 
to  you — 51.  the  100  acres — comes  heavy  enough  ;  and  when 
there  are  arrears  falling  due  besides,  it  is  a  serious  thing  I 
can  tell  you.  But  small  or  large,  our  people  have  an  aver¬ 
sion  to  paying  rent ;  they  want  to  have  the  land  their  own , 
ani  they  are  willing  to  pay  a  fair  price  for  it  too.’ 

A  shilling  an  acre !  I  could  scarcely  realise  to  my  mind 
the  idea  of  this  being  a  burden,  or  its  payment  a  griev¬ 
ance  ;  still  to  many  the  burden  was  felt  to  be  intolerable, 
and  the  grievance  one  of  real  magnitude.  And,  a,s  the 
strangest  confirmation  of  the  existence  of  this  feeling,  there 


WIIAT  TIIE  TENANT  CLAIMS. 


39 


is  tlie  policy  of  the  leading  public  men  of  the  colony,  which 
is  to  free  the  actual  cultivators  from  the  obligation  of  rent¬ 
paying,  by  converting  the  occupying  tenant  into  a  fee- 
simple  proprietor.  Already  much  had  been  done  m  pur¬ 
suance  of  this  popular  policy.  Extensive  properties — mostly 
held  by  absentees — had  been  purchased  by  the  State,  and 
resold  to  the  occupiers  on  easy  terms,  ranging  from  5s. 
to  10s.  or  12s.  per  acre.  The  last  great  property  thus  pur¬ 
chased  by  the  Government,  with  the  view  of  being  re¬ 
sold,  belonged  to  the  representatives  of  the  late  Sir  Samuel 
Cunard.  It  consisted  of  212,000  acres,  partly  reclaimed 
and  partly  in  the  wilderness  state,  and  was  sold  for  53,000/. 
British  money  ;  the  purchase  money  including  a  consider¬ 
able  sum  in  arrears,  generously  flung  into  the  bargain,  or 
indeed  practically  given  up.  There  being  no  difference  of 
opinion  with  respect  to  the  policy  of  converting  tenancy  into 
fee-simple  proprietorship,  and  the  only  dispute  being  as  to 
the  best  or  speediest  mode  by  which  this  conversion  can  be 
accomplished,  it  is  probable  that  a  short  time  will  be 
sufficient  to  bring  about  a  satisfactory  solution  of  the 
*  difficulty  ’  which  has  its  origin  in  the  Land  Question  of 
Prince  Edward  Island. 

If  the  claim  to  be  released  from  the  obligation  of  pay¬ 
ing  rent  could  in  any  case  be  regarded  as  fair  and  equit¬ 
able,  it  would  be  so  when  urged  by  the  cultivators  of 
Prince  Edward  Island  ;  as  it  was  they,  and  they  alone,  who 
by  their  labour  changed  the  whole  face  of  the  country,  re¬ 
deeming  it  from  the  forest  which  at  no  distant  time  covered 
the  land  from  shore  to  shore.  About  one  hundred  years 
ago  the  island  was  parcelled  out  to  about  as  many  pro¬ 
prietors,  on  certain  specified  conditions,  the  principal  of 
which  was,  to  procure  settlers,  with  a  view  to  the  cultiva¬ 
tion  of  the  soil  and  the  population  of  the  colony,  and  also 
to  pay  quit  rent  to  the  Crown.  These  obligations,  the 
conditions  on  which  the  estates  were  originally  granted, 
were  generally  disregarded  ;  to  such  an  extent,  indeed. 


to 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


were  they  disregarded,  that  some  forfeitures  were  made, 
and  these  forfeitures  would  have  been  extensively  enforced 
had  not  the  defaulting  proprietors  sufficient  influence  with 
the  Home  Government  to  retain  their  property,  notwith¬ 
standing  that  they  had  failed  in  many  and  flagrant  in¬ 
stances  to  redeem  their  part  of  the  original  compact.  So 
little  was  done  in  the  way  of  obtaining  settlers,  that  at  the 
commencement  of  the  present  century  the  population  of 
the  whole  island  did  not  exceed  6,000  souls  ;  and  it  was 
not  until  the  year  1830-35  that  any  extensive  emigration 
from  the  United  Kingdom  took  place.  In  1832  the  popula¬ 
tion  was  32,000  ;  it  was  80,552  by  the  last  census  ;  and  in  1866 
it  was  rather  triumphantly  estimated  at  or  near  90,000. 

About  two  years  since,  the  anti-rent  feeling  resolved  it¬ 
self  into  an  active  organisation,  having  its  centre  in  Char- 
lottetown,  the  capital  and  seat  of  government.  Who  were 
its  leaders,  or  by  whom  it  was  originated,  is  of  little  con¬ 
sequence  to  know.  I  have  heard  it  stated  that  the  Irish 
were  not  among  its  active  promoters  in  the  first  instance, 
the  English  and  Scotch  settlers  taking  the  lead.  But  the 
Irish  were  soon  drawn  into  the  League,  as  they  sympathised 
heartily  with  its  object,  which  was  not  so  much  to  abolish 
the  payment  of  rent,  as  to  compel  the  proprietors  to  sell 
their  estates  on  fair  terms.  Passive  resistance  was  even¬ 
tually  adopted  in  certain  districts,  the  representatives  of 
the  civil  power  being  coolly  set  at  defiance,  or  rather 
laughed  at  by  the  sturdy  colonists.  Seeing  the  inability  of 
the  civil  force  to  cope  with  what  a  prosecuting  crown  lawyer 
would  describe  as  ‘  a  conspiracy  against  property  at  once 
wide-spread  and  formidable/  it  was  deemed  advisable  to 
send  t;>  the  main  land  for  two  companies  of  infantry,  there 
not  then  being  a  single  soldier  in  the  colony.  Backed  by 
this  armed  force,  the  law  was  vindicated,  a  few  individuals 
being  made  the  victims  of  their  bold  resistance,  or  legal 
indiscretion.  The  Tenant  League  came  to  an  end  ;  but  as 
proof  that  the  feeling  in  which  it  had  it  j  origin  was  still 


THE  TENANT  LEAGUE  AND  TIIE  GOVERNMENT. 


41 


potent,  inasmuch,  as  it  really  represented  tlie  universal 
sentiment  of  the  colony,  an  extract  or  two  from  the  public 
records  may  be  useful. 

On  the  9th  of  April,  18G6,  the  Lieutenant-Governor, 
when  opening  the  legislative  session,  used  these  words  in 
in  his  c  speech.’ 

The  general  prosperity  of  the  past  year  has  been  marred  by  the 
civil  disturbances  which  took  place  in  several  parts  of  this  colony. 
Misled  by  ignorant  or  designing  men,  tenants  were  induced  to  form 
themselves  into  an  association  with  the  avowed  intention  of  withholding 
payment  of  their  rents,  unless  their  landlords  consented  to  sell  their 
lands  on  such  terms  as  this  association  chose  to  dictate. 

The  law  was  openly  and  systematically  set  at  defiance,  and  it  became 
necessary  to  use  extraordinary  measures  to  enforce  it.  A  requisition 
was  therefore  made  for  a  detachment  of  Her  Majesty’s  troops,  to  aid  the 
civil  power,  and  the  authority  of  the  law  has  been  firmly  and  impar¬ 
tially  maintained. 

But,  as  if  to  show  that  the  popular  demand  was  not 
devoid  of  reason  and  justice,  his  Excellency  made  the  fol¬ 
lowing  important  announcement  : — 

‘I  have  recently  concluded  the  purchase  of  another  estate 
* from  one  of  the  proprietors.  It  is  my  intention  to  continue  to 
(buy  out  the  rights  of  the  landowners,  whenever  I  am  enabled  to 
‘  do  so  on  reasonable  terms.’ 

And  on  the  11th  of  May,  when  the  short  session  was 
formally  closed,  the  representative  of  the  Crown  thus  pro¬ 
claimed  the  triumph,  if  not  of  the  League,  at  least  of  the 
popular  demand  : — 

Mr.  Speaker  and  Gentlemen  of  the  House  of  Assembly : 

‘  The  measure  by  which  you  have  extended  my  powers 
‘  of  purchasing  land,  has  my  hearty  concurrence  ;  and  I  trust 
£  that,  under  its  provisions,  I  may  be  enabled  to  purchase  large 
( estates  from  the  proprietors’ 

In  the  ‘  debate  on  the  address  ’  many  things  were  said  on 
both  sides  of  the  House  which  would  have  been  in  the  last 
degree  startling  if  uttered  in  the  senate-chamber  of  the 
mother  country.  A  few  extracts  will  suffice. 


12 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


First  from  the  Hon.  Mr.  Coles,  the  Leader  of  the  Oppo¬ 
sition,  who,  referring  to  a  proposition  made  by  the  late 
Duke  of  Newcastle,  as  Colonial  Minister,  says  : — 

The  Duke’s  own  proposals,  however,  ought  to  have  satisfied  the 
Government.  His  scheme  was  that  if  a  tenant  had  regularly  paid 
his  rent,  under  his  lease,  for  1G  years,  he  should  be  entitled  to  the 
freehold  of  his  farm  at  16  years’  purchase;  if  for  10  years,  for  10 
years’  purchase  ;  and  if  for  8  years,  for  8  years’  purchase  ;  that  was 
according  to  the  actual  interest  which  the  proprietor  had  in  the 
leasehold,  as  evidenced  by  the  amount  of  rent  which  he  had  received 
on  account  of  it.  At  the  time  it  was  submitted  he  thought  the 
scheme  was  a  fair  one,  and  he  thought  so  still ;  but  our  Government 
thought  otherwise,  rejected  it,  and  brought  forward  and  carried  their 
Fifteen  Years’  Purchase  Bill. 

The  Solicitor-General,  the  official  organ  of  the  Govern¬ 
ment,  defends  the  Fifteen  Years’  Purchase  Bill,  which, 
though  derided  for  its  shortcomings  by  the  Leader  of  the 
Opposition,  would  be  regarded  in  the  British  House  of 
Commons  as  a  measure  of  sweeping  confiscation  worthy 
of  the  French  Devolution,  or  the  days  of  Jack  Cade.  That 
learned  gentleman  says  : — • 

In  every  Session  of  the  Legislature  since  the  passage  of  the  Fifteen 
Years’  Purchase  Bill  have  the  Opposition  assailed  the  Government,  on 
the  assumed  grounds  that  that  Bill  was  no  boon  to  the  tenantry,  was 
unacceptable  to  a  majority  of  them,  and  could  not  by  any  possibility 
be  made  advantageous  to  them.  He,  however,  confidently  maintained 
Mi  at  the  Bill  was  a  handsome  instalment  of  all  the  benefits  promised 
to  the  tenantry,  by  the  party  in  power,  through  legislative  action 
with  respect  to  the  Land  Question.  By  means  of  it  large  arrears  of 
rent  have  been  expunged  from  the  books  of  proprietors ,  and  declared, 
irrecoverable,  as  against  all  tenants  who  shall  avail  themselves  of  the 
provisions  of  the  Bill  for  the  purchase  of  the  fee-simple  of  their  farms , 
Whilst  the  tenants’  improvements  were  in  existence  they  were  a  suffi¬ 
cient  security  for  the  recovery  of  all  arrears  of  rent.  On  one-third 
of  Lot  34,  the  property  of  Sir  E.  Cunard,  the  tenants  by  having 
xvailed  themselves  of  the  advantages  extended  to  them  by  that  Bill, 
had  had  over  1,000/L  of  arrears  wiped  off,  every  farthing  of  which 
could  have  been  recovered  by  the  proprietor,  because  the  tenants 
were,  in  reality,  men  of  wealth.  It  was  the  same  on  the  Sullivan 
property  There  were  many  tenants  upon  the  estates  affected  by  the 


•CONFISCATION'  PROFITABLE  TO  THE  GOVERNMENT.  43 


Fifteen  Years’  Purchase  Bill,  to  whom,  before  the  passing  of  it,  Ihe  pro¬ 
prietors  would  not  consent  to  sell  the  fee-simple  of  their  farms,  even  at 
20s.  or  30s.  per  acre  ;  but  those  proprietors  w ere  now  compelled  to  part 
with  ihe  fee-simple  of  their  leased  lands  at  15  years'1  purchase. 

With  the  following  passage  from  the  speech  of  the  Hon. 
J.  C.  Pope,  who  must  be  described  as  the  Prime  Minister 
of  this  sufficiently-governed  colony,  these  extracts  may  be 
closed.  Nor  is  it  the  least  significant  of  the  entire.  He 
shows  that  the  purchase  and  re-sale  of  the  great  properties 
has  been  a  paying  speculation  for  the  Government ;  and 
he  adds  his  official  testimony  to  the  universality  of  the 
feeling  in  favour  of  the  conversion  of  tenancies  into  fee- 
simple — or,  as  he  emphatically  expresses  it,  ‘  the  freeing  of 
the  country  from  the  burden  of  the  leasehold  or  rent-paying 
system/ 

‘Nearly  all  the  money  which  the  Conservatives  have  ex¬ 
pended  in  the  purchase  of  proprietary  estates  has  been 
‘refunded.  Every  estate  which  we  have  bought  has  proved 
‘  a  paying  speculation.  We  have  had  a  profit  upon  every 
1  one  of  them.  I  think  the  Government  will  be  justified  in 
‘ purchasing  all  the  estates  they  can,  and  carrying  on,  as 
‘  quickly  as  possible,  ihe  freeing  of  the  country  from  the  bur- 
‘then  of  the  leasehold  or  rent-paying  system;  and  whether 
‘I  may  be  in  the  Government  or  out  of  it,  I  will  do  all 
‘in  my  power  to  bring  about  so  desirable  a  consumma- 
‘  tion.’ 

So  much  for  the  Land  Question  of  the  British  Colony  of 
Prince  Edward  Island,  which  Sir  Bulwer  Lytton  was  as 
anxious  to  settle  on  satisfactory  terms  to  the  colonists  as 
was  the  Duke  of  Newcastle.  To  statesmen  who  recoil 
with  dismay  from  the  least  invasion  of  the  ‘rights  of 
property  ’  it  may  afford  matter  for  useful  reflection. 

Before  dismissing  the  subject,  I  may  add,  on  the  author¬ 
ity  of  men  of  all  parties,  classes,  and  positions,  that  not 
only  are  the  Irish  amongst  the  most  thrifty,  energetic,  and 
improving  of  the  agricultural  population,  but  they  are  re- 


u 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA, 


markable  for  tlieir  punctuality  as  rent-payers.  I  had  no 
opportunity  of  visiting  more  than  two  of  the  settlements 
exclusively  Irish ;  but  I  was  generally  assured  that  the 
other  Irish  settlements  were  in  every  respect  equal  to  those 
I  had  seen. 

While  I  was  in  the  island,  an  Irishman,  who  had  not 
many  years  before  come  out  as  a  labourer,  sold  a  farm  for 
1,000Z.,  retaining  another  worth  double  that  amount.  ‘  I 
came  out  here  with  little  in  my  pocket,’  said  an  Irishman 
from  Munster,  from  the  borders  of  Cork  and  Tipperary, 
‘  and  I  thank  God  I  am  now  worth  over  2,000£.’  This  was 
said,  not  boastingly,  but  in  gratitude  to  Providence  for  the 
blessing  which  had  attended  his  humble  industry.  ‘  I  had 
nothing  to  depend  on  but  God  and  my  own  four  bones,’ 
said  another  successful  Irishman  to  me  in  Prince  Edward 
Island ;  and  this  form  of  phrase,  so  expressive  of  self-reli¬ 
ance  and  trust  in  the  Divine  assistance,  I  heard  repeated 
by  men  of  the  same  persevering  and  pious  race  throughout 
the  United  States  and  the  British  Colonies.  ‘I  had  no 
one  but  God  to  help  me,’  is  a  common  expression  with  tho 
Irish  everywhere. 

The  sums  mentioned  as  the  results  of  honest  industry, 
and  self-reliance  -of  the  most  elevated  character,  though 
respectable  in  amount,  by  no  means  indicate  the  position 
obtained  by  many  Irishmen  in  the  colony.  There  are  in¬ 
stances  of  success  in  trade  to  which  the  possession  of  a 
couple  of  thousand  pounds  would  be  but  a  small  affair 
indeed.  However,  the  moderate  success  and  modest  inde¬ 
pendence  of  a  considerable  number  in  a  community  is  far 
more  indicative  of  general  prosperity  than  the  extraordi¬ 
nary  success  and  the  large  possessions  of  a  few ;  and  it  is 
satisfactory  to  know  that  the  generally  good  position  of  the 
Irish  in  this  small  colony  is  not  only  a  fact  well  established, 
but  that  it  is  admitted  to  be  the  result  of  integrity,  intelli¬ 
gence,  and  good  conduct. 


45 


A  SCOTCH  BISHOP’S  TESTIMONY  TO  THE  IUISII. 

The  testimony  of  their  Scotch  Bishop  is  not  to  be  over¬ 
looked  ;  it  is  honouring  to  them  and  to  him  : 

‘  They,  the  Irish,  are  a  thrifty,  industrious,  energetic 
4  class  of  people,  of  a  perseverance  that  would  be  worthy  of 
‘  imitation.  They  keep  pace  in  all  respects — in  intelligence 
‘and  education,  in  comfort  and  independence — with  all 
‘  other  settlers. 

‘As  for  the  Irish  girls,  there  could  not  be  a  more 
modest,  chaste,  and  well-conducted  class  than  the  Catlio- 
‘  lies  of  the  town  and  country.  A  cause  of  scandal  is  of  the 
‘  very  rarest  occurrence  among  them. 

‘  The  Irish  are  economical  when  they  settle  down  on  the 
fland.  The  live  poorly  at  first,  then  save  money,  and 
'  acquire  property  where  they  can. 

‘What  they  are  they  have  made  themselves.  For  one 
'  who  came  out  with  a  dollar,  ten  have  come  out  with  a 
shilling.’ 

And  testimony  such  as  the  foregoing  is,  to  my  know¬ 
ledge,  not  without  the  highest  official  sanction  in  the 
colony. 

‘  The  spiritual  provision  for  the  Catholic  population  of 
the  island,  now  estimated  at  40,000,  French — Scotch,  and 
Irish — is  steadily  on  the  increase.  There  are  42  churches 
and  18  priests,  besides  three  convents  of  nuns,  having  the 
care  of  academies  and  schools,  in  which  the  children  are 
carefully  instructed  in  their  faith. 

Two  buildings  in  Charlottetown  attest  more  eloquently 
than  words  the  history  and  progress  of  the  Catholic  Church 
in  the  colony.  The  one,  now  used  as  a  school,  denotes,  by 
certain  lines  on  its  roof,  that  it  had  been  more  than  once 
enlarged  while  used  as  the  only  church  for  Catholic  wor¬ 
ship  in  the  capital— in  fact,  the  cathedral.  The  other  is 
the  existing  cathedral,  a  handsome  and  imposing  structure, 
furnished  with  a  valuable  organ,  and  capable  of  accom¬ 
modating  the  Catholics  of  the  town,  in  number  about 


46 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


2,500,  wlio,  with  but  a,  few  exceptions,  are  Irish,  or  their 
descendants  of  the  first  generation. 

To  the  French,  of  whom  some  were  the  Acadians  who  had 
been  so  ruthlessly  banished  from  their  home  in  Nova  Scotia, 
was  the  gift  of  the  faith  due  in  Prince  Edward  Island. 
Then  came  the  Highland  Scotch,  strong  in  their  fidelity 
to  the  religion  of  their  gallant  forefathers  ;  and  lastly  the 
Irish,  who  brought  their  numbers  and  their  zeal  to  swell  the 
ranks  of  the  Church  and  add  to  its  importance  and  influence 
in  the  colony.  The  first  missionary  was  Dr.  McEachern,  a 
Scotch  priest,  educated  at  Yaladolid  in  Spain,  who  came  to 
the  island  after  the  first  Highland  immigration.  His  was 
an  extensive  sheep-fold,  and  many  a  weary  journey  he  had 
to  make  in  looking  after  his  widely-scattered  flock.  New 
Brunswick  and  Cape  Breton  were  included  within  his 
jurisdiction,  and  frequently  the  faithful  from  Nova  Scotia 
crossed  the  sea  to  seek  religious  consolation  at  his  hands. 
This  first  Bishop  of  Charlottetown  was  a  man  of  energy 
and  resources :  for  without  any  aid,  save  that  which  the 
zeal  and  piety  of  a  small  and  much  discouraged  com¬ 
munity  supplied,  he  established  a  school,  in  which  he 
educated  two  priests,  who  formed  the  nucleus  of  the 
future  ecclesiastical  establishment  of  the  island,  which 
gave  eighteen  priests  and  two  bishops  to  the  church.  It 
having  accomplished  its  great  work,  the  Seminary  of  St. 
Andrews  was  closed ;  and  in  its  place  there  is  now  an 
admirable  institution,  St.  Dunstan’s  College,  which  was 
erected  by  Dr.  McDonald,  who  devoted  all  his  means  to 
that  praiseworthy  object.  This  college  is  supplied  with 
every  modern  requirement  and  appliance,  and  is  under 
the  able  presidency  of  the  Bev.  Angus  McDonald,  a  man 
well  qualified  for  his  important  task,  and  whose  title  of 
‘  Father  Angus  ’  is  as  affectionately  pronounced  by  the 
most  Irish  of  the  Irish  as  if  it  were  ‘Father  Larry* 
or  ‘  Father  Pat.’  The  Irish  love  their  own  priests  ; 
but  let  the  priest  of  any  nationality — English,  Scotch, 


TI1E  IRISH  AND  THEIR  PASTORS. 


47 


French,  Belgian,  or  American — only  exhibit  sympathy  with 
them,  or  treat  them  with  kindness  and  affection,  and  at 
once  he  is  as  thoroughly  ‘  their  priest  ’  as  if  he  had  been 
born  on  the  banks  of  the  Boyne  or  the  Shannon.  ‘  Father 
Dan  ’  McDonald,  the  Yicar-General,  is  a  striking  instance 
of  the  attachment  borne  by  an  Irish  congregation  to  a  good 
and  kindly  priest ;  and  I  now  the  more  dwell  on  this 
thorough  fusion  of  priest  and  people  in  love  and  sympathy, 
because  of  having  witnessed  with  pain  and  sorrow  the 
injurious  results,  alike  to  my  countrymen  and  to  the 
Church,  of  forcing  upon  almost  exclusively  Irish  congre¬ 
gations  clergymen  who,  from  their  imperfect  knowledge 
of  the  English  tongue,  could  not  for  a  long  time  make 
themselves  understood  by  those  over  wrhom  it  was  essential 
they  should  acquire  a  beneficial  influence.  This  was 
glaringly  the  case  in  one  Western  diocese  of  the  United 
States,  where  its  existence  was  deplored  to  me  by  good 
men  deeply  devoted  to  their  faith.  But  sympathy  soon 
renders  the  most  imperfect  English  intelligible  to  the  affec¬ 
tionate  Irish  heart,  and  binds  the  priest  to  the  congrega¬ 
tion  in  those  sacred  relations  which  constitute  the  strength 
of  the  Church,  and  secure  the  safety  of  the  flock. 

A  fact  of  which  I  heard,  and  an  incident  which  I  wit¬ 
nessed,  will  afford  an  idea  of  the  vitality  of  the  Catholic 
Church  in  Prince  Edward  Island,  and  exhibit  the  affec¬ 
tionate  respect  in  which  Irishmen  in  that  distant  colony 
hold  those  religious  ladies  who  devote  their  lives  to  the 
education  of  the  young. 

At  Tignisli,  wliere  the  Catholic  element  is  very  strong, 
and  the  Irish  are  in  the  proportion  of  one-tliird  to  the 
French,  there  is  a  beautiful  church,  of  stone  and  brick, 
which  would  do  credit  to  any  city  in  the  world ;  and  this 
church  was  erected,  at  a  cost  of  12,000/.,  in  the  space  of 
fourteen  months !  This  church,  as  the  bishop  stated  with 
just  pride,  ‘  wras  the  spontaneous  and  voluntary  offering  of 
the  people.’  This  was  not  the  only  effort  recently  made 


48 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


by  the  liigli-spirited  citizens  of  Tignisli ;  for  in  18G5  a 
spacious  convent,  75  feet  in  length  by  40  in  depth,  and 
three  stories  high,  the  material  of  brick,  was  erected  in  the 
same  place. 

Among  the  other  conventual  establishments  of  Prince 
Edward  Island  is  a  branch  of  the  famous  Congregation 
of  Notre  Dame.  Besides  a  boarding  school  and  day 
school  for  paying  pupils,  these  Sisters  also  conduct  a  free 
school,  which  is  at  some  distance  from  the  house  in  which 
they  reside.  I  here  remarked  with  surprise,  from  its 
novelty  to  one  who  had  just  left  a  country  in  which  reli¬ 
gious  distinctions  are  so  strongly  marked,  that  Protestants 
of  various  denominations,  including  those  most  prominent 
»n  their  hostility  to  the  Catholic  Church,  send  their  chil¬ 
dren  to  be  instructed  by  the  Sisters.  As  I  passed  through 
America,  I  found  that  this  custom  was  almost  universal. 
There  are  very  grave  reasons  which  induce  parents  to 
obtain  for  their  children  the  watchful  care  and  salutary 
influence  of  religious  women,  themselves  models  of  gentle¬ 
ness  and  refinement ;  and  whatever  the  natural  prejudices 
of  the  parents,  the  desire  to  see  their  children  refined, 
cultivated,  and  good,  is  still  stronger.  In  some  communi¬ 
ties  the  motives  which  impel  parents  to  prefer  the  teaching 
of  ‘the  Sisters’  are  more  pressing  and  powerful  than  m 
others ;  but  though  the  most  violent  opposition  is  offered 
to  the  practice  in  many  instances,  it  would  appear  to  be 
generally  on  the  increase,  and  even  regarded  as  a  matter 
of  legitimate  precaution  on  the  part  of  those  who  adopt  il 
In  Charlottetown  there  is  no  school  which  can  in  any  way 
approach  in  excellence  the  academy  of  the  Ladies  of  Notre 
Dame  ;  which  fact  is  of  itself  sufficient  explanation  of  what 
would  at  first  excite  some  surprise.  The  Ladies  of  Notre 
Dame  are  not  cloistered  nuns.  Bound  for  life  by  their 
vows,  like  other  Orders,  they  can  go  about,  visit,  and  teach 
in  schools  not  under  the  roof  of  their  convent. 

The  Sisters  in  Charlottetown,  as  I  have  said,  teach  in  a 


A  GRACEFUL  GIFT. 


49 


free  school  which  is  not  attached  to  their  residence  ;  and 
when  the  hard  winter  sets  in,  and  the  snow  lies  deep  on 
the  ground  for  months,  the  journey  to  and  from  the  ex¬ 
ternal  school  is  not  a  little  trying  to  delicate  women.  To 
provide  against  this  inconvenience,  and  enable  the  Sisters 
to  visit  the  sick,  and  transact  their  business  with  greater 
expedition  and  safety,  the  Catholics  of  the  town  presented 
them  with  an  elegant  close  carriage  and  harness,  all  finished 
in  the  most  admirable  style  of  local  Workmanship  ;  and 
this  thoughtful  present  was  accompanied  with  an  address, 
which,  written  and  read  by  an  excellent  Irishman  (the 
Hon.  Edward  "VVheelan),  -was  a  model  of  simplicity  and 
brevity.  The  gift  was  received  in  a  corresponding  spirit  to 
that  in  which  it  had  its  origin,  and  was  acknowledged  with 
graceful  warmth  on  behalf  of  the  gratified  community. 
Among  the  deputation  were  such  genuine  Irish  names  as 
Brennan,  Reddin,  Connolly,  Murphy,  McCarron,  McKenna, 
Wheelan,  Riley,  McQuaid,  and  Gaffney — all  ‘racy  of  the 
soil.’ 

A  poor  man  might  do  much  worse  than  turn  his  face 
to  Prince  Edward  Island,  where  land  can  be  had  cheap, 
and  'where,  to  use  the  emphatic  words  of  the  Governor, 
‘  the  farmers  clamour  for  help .’  Here,  however,  as  through¬ 
out  the  British  provinces,  I  found  the  tendency  of  the 
young  of  both  sexes  was  towards  the  United  States,  which 
offered  the  resistless  attraction  of  higher  wages  and  a  wider 
field  for  individual  enterprise. 


3 


T11E  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  HI. 


Scene  in  the  Lords— The  Irish  Race  despaired  of— The  Settle¬ 
ment  of  Johnville,  New  Brunswick — We  enter  the  Settlement — 
The  First  Man  and  Woman — The  Second  Man  and  Woman  —Celtic 
Energy — Jimmy  M’Allister — Mr. Reilly  from  Bally  vourney — How 
the  Man  of  no  Capital  gets  along — One  Cause  of  Success — Mass 
in  the  Forest — Neither  Rent  nor  ‘  Gale  ’ — Other  Settlements. 


N  a  certain  evening  of  March  1866,  there  was  a  more 


than  usual  attendance  of  peers  in  the  House  of  Lords ; 


and,  attracted  by  the  subject  for  discussion,  many  members 
of  the  Commons  occupied  the  bar,  or  that  portion  of  the 
gallery  reserved  for  their  accommodation.  Among  the 
strangers  who  were  present,  was  the  Roman  Catholic 
Bishop  of  St.  John,  New  Brunswick,  an  Irishman,  but  for 
nearly  forty  years  a  resident  in  that  colony.  Earl  Grey 
had  given  notice  of  his  intention  to  submit  a  series  of 
resolutions  in  reference  to  the  state  of  Ireland  ;  and  the 
largeness  of  the  attendance  was  owing  more  to  the  gravity 
of  the  subject  than  even  to  the  fame  of  the  statesman  by 
whom  it  was  to  be  introduced.  With  that  grave  and  im¬ 
pressive  statement,  which  belongs  to  the  Parliamentary 
records  of  the  country,  this  work  has  no  concern  ;  a  little 
incident  which  occurred  during  its  delivery  being  the  only 
justification  for  its  mention  in  these  pages. 

Standing  immediately  near  the  stranger,  was  a  gentle¬ 
man  who  displayed  marked  courtesy  to  the  ‘American’ — 
as  the  Bishop  simply  represented  himself  to  be — pointing 
out  to  him  the  leading  peers  on  either  side,  and  explaining 
such  of  the  forms  and  modes  of  procedure  as  were  likely 
to  be  useful  to  one  who  was  for  the  first  time  witness  of  a 
debate  in  the  Lords.  In  the  course  of  his  statement  Earl 
Grey  necessarily  referred  to  the  Emigration  movement, 


THE  IRISH  RACE  DESPAIRED  OF. 


51 


which  he  deplored  as  a  great  calamity — a  regret,  I  may 
remark,  shared  in  by  the  wisest  statesmen  and  truest 
patriots  of  the  day  ;  though  this  annual  wasting  away  of 
the  strength  and  very  life  of  a  nation  is  regarded,  not 
merely  with  indifference,  but  with  positive  satisfaction, 
by  shallow  thinkers,  and  false  judges  of  the  character  and 
capability  of  the  Irish  race. 

£My  dear  Sir,’  said  the  courteous  neighbour  of  the 
Catholic  Bishop,  £  I  do  not  at  all  agree  with  his  lordship  ; 

£  on  the  contrary,  my  dehberate  conviction  is,  unless  the 
‘Irish  go  away  of  their  own  accord,  or  are  got  rid  of  in 
£  some  manner  or  other,  and  are  replaced  by  our  people — I 
£  mean  the  English  or  the  Scotch — nothing  good  can  ever 
£  be  done  with  that  unhappy  country.’ 

The  conviction  thus  deliberately  expressed  was  honestly 
entertained.  There  was  no  hostility,  no  anger,  no  passion, 
but  a  deep-seated  belief  in  the  truth  of  the  terrible  sen¬ 
tence  thus  tranquilly  pronounced  on  a  whole  nation.  A 
similar  opinion  has  been  too  frequently  expressed  or  in¬ 
sinuated  in  the  public  press  of  England,  not  perhaps  so  fre¬ 
quently  of  late  as  in  former  years ;  and,  shocking  as  the 
fact  may  appear  to  be,  there  have  not  been  wanting  those 
who  call  themselves  Irishmen,  to  indorse  this  insolent 
slander  by  their  unnatural  verdict. 

Now,  if  any  man  in  that  assembly  could  most  prac¬ 
tically  and  completely  refute  the  scandalous  proposition, 
it  was  the  Catholic  Bishop  to  whom,  in  the  dusk  of  the 
evening,  and  while  the  gorgeous  chamber  was  yet  in  the 
shadows  of  twilight,  his  courteous  informant  thus  vouch¬ 
safed  this  candid  opinion.  That  same  day,  a  few  hours 
before  he  listened  to  this  sweeping  condemnation  of  the 
Irish  race,  Dr.  Sweeny  had  described  to  me  the  extra¬ 
ordinary  success  which  had  attended  his  efforts  to  settle 
the  Irish  on  the  soil  of  New  Brunswick ;  and  how,  in  the 
midst  of  the  most  trying  difficulties,  which  scarcely  any 
one  in  the  old  country  could  imagine,  much  less  appreciate, 


52 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


the  same  Irish,  of  whom  the  gentleman  in  the  House  of 
Lords  so  utterly  despaired,  had,  in  an  almost  incredibly 
short  space  of  time,  won  their  way  to  rude  comfort  and 
absolute  independence.  In  that  interview  I  acquainted 
the  Bishop  of  my  intention  to  make  a  tour  through  the 
British  Provinces  and  the  States  ;  and  before  we  sepa¬ 
rated  it  was  arranged  that  I  should  specially  visit  his 
latest  settlement  of  our  unjustly  depreciated  countrymen. 
The  appointment  mad6  in  London  in  the  month  of  March 
was  faithfully  kept  in  New  Brunswick  in  the  month  of  Oc¬ 
tober  ;  and  on  the  morning  of  Thursday,  the  25th  of  that 
month,  the  Bisliop  and  I  were  en  route  for  the  settlement, 
a  distance  of  nearly  200  miles  from  the  city  of  St.  John. 

After  having  passed  the  first  evening  at  Frederickton, 
the  capital  of  New  Brunswick,  where  many  Irish  are  com¬ 
fortably  circumstanced,  and  steadily  increasing  in  wealth, 
and  the  second  at  Woodstock,  where  there  is  also  a  fair 
proportion  of  the  race  equally  thriving,  we  set  out  at  an 
early  hour  on  the  following  morning  for  the  settlement  of 
Johnville,  a  distance  of  thirty-five  miles,  not  of  rail  or 
water,  but  of  rough  road  ;  and  about  noon  on  Saturday 
we  were  entering  the  forest  avenue  which  led  to  the  utter¬ 
most  boundary  on  the  western  side.  The  road  over  wdiicli 
we  travelled  had  to  me  all  the  charm  of  novelty,  and 
would  have  appeared  picturesque  and  striking  to  any  one 
from  the  old  country,  for  it  resembled  rather  a  cutting 
through  a  vast  and  ancient  wood  than  an  ordinary  high¬ 
way.  The  Bishop  was,  as  I  thought,  unnecessarily  enthu¬ 
siastic  in  his  x^raise  of  the  new  road,  which,  I  must  confess, 
I  thought  altogether  fatal  to  personal  comfort,  and  in  the 
last  degree  trying  to  the  safety  of  the  springs  of  our 
vehicle,  though  the  carriage  had  been  specially  adapted  to 
meet  such  trifling  contingencies  as  deex)  ruts,  profound 
hollows,  occasional  chasn^s,  with  an  abundant  variety  of 
watercourses  roughly  covered  over  with  logs,  not  always 
matched  with  the  nicest  care.  I  axrpreciated  the  road 


THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  JOIINVILLE. 


63 


from  a  European  point  of  view,  and  as  it  affected  my  in¬ 
dividual  comfort;  but  tlie  Bishop  retained  a  vivid  remem¬ 
brance  of  the  mere  lumberman’s  track  of  three  or  four 
years  previous,  and  could  estimate  at  its  right  value  the 
facility  which  this  new  highway  afforded  to  his  settlers  for 
the  transit  of  their  produce  and  provisions.  As  we  pro¬ 
ceeded  through  our  couple  of  miles  of  dense  forest — in 
which  the  dark  green  of  the  pine  and  the  brighter  verdure 
of  the  spruce  contrasted  with  the  prevailing  sombre  hue 
of  the  hard  wood,  occasionally  relieved  by  the  bright 
yellow  leaves  of  the  beech,  and  the  gleaming  crimson  of 
the  frost-tinted  maple — we  were  met  by  two  or  three  of 
the  country  waggons,  laden  with  grain,  and  driven  by 
strapping  young  fellows,  roughly  but  comfortably  clad, 
their  stout  horses  trotting  briskly  along  the  Bishop’s  model 
highway.  These  young  men  were  delighted  to  see  their 
good  Pastor,  whom  they  saluted  with  a  mixture  of  respect 
and  affection,  and  with  whom  they  chatted  with  the  most 
perfect  freedom.  They  promised  to  spread  far  and  wide 
the  grateful  intelligence  that  Mass  would  be  celebrated  at 
eight  o’clock  the  following  morning  in  the  little  chapel  of 
the  settlement. 

Before  we  enter  the  Irish  settlement  of  Johnville,  it  will 
be  necessary  to  explain  briefly  its  origin  and  the  conditions 
under  which  it  was  established. 

Deploring  the  tendency — the  ruinous  tendency — of  his 
countrymen  to  congregate  in  masses  in  cities,  or  to  ‘  hang 
about  town,’  as  it  is  generally  described,  and  being 
thoroughly  conversant  with  the  many  evils  resulting  from 
this  prevailing  habit  of  the  Irish  immigrant,  the  Bishop  of 
St.  John  determined  to  employ  his  influence  to  induce 
numbers  of  his  people  to  settle  on  the  soil,  and  thus,  amid 
the  simplicity  and  safety  of  a  rural  existence,  create  for 
themselves  a  happy  home  and  an  honourable  independence. 
Availing  himself  of  the  facilities  afforded  by  the  Labour 
A.ct,  he  applied  to  the  Government  for  tracts  of  unoccu- 


64 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


pied  land  on  certain  conditions,  one  being  that  be  should 
find  settlers  for  this  land  within  a  limited  time.  His  first 
application  was  for  10,000  acres,  which  were  to  be  occu¬ 
pied.  in  twelve  months.  For  this  quantity  of  land  settlers 
were  found  within  the  prescribed  period.  A  second  10,000 
acres  were  then  applied  for,  and  similarly  occupied  ;  and 
an  additional  16,000  acres,  also  obtained  by  the  Bishop, 
were  yet  to  be  occupied  by  those  who  possessed  the  requi¬ 
site  courage  to  face  the  difficulties  and  temporary  hard¬ 
ships  of  a  new  existence.  There  were  then  in  actual 
occupation  170  lots,  of  100  acres  each ;  and  allowing  for 
the  settlers  with  families,  and  the  young  men  who  had  not 
yet  entered  into  the  bonds  of  wedlock,  the  number  of  souls 
in  the  settlement  of  Johnville  might  be  fairly  estimated  at 
600  at  the  very  lowest — a  terrible  responsiblity  to  the 
Bishop,  if  his  influence  had  been  unwisely  used,  but  a 
triumph  and  a  consolation  to  him  if  it  had  been  exercised 
in  a  spirit  of  wisdom  and  humanity.  Of  this  the  reader 
can  form  a  judgment  from  what  follows. 

Each  settler  was  required  by  the  State,  as  the  principal 
condition  of  obtaining  100  acres  of  land,  to  give  work,  to 
the  value  of  sixty  dollars,  on  the  public  road  that  was  to 
pass  by  his  own  door,  and  was  intended  for  his  own  ad¬ 
vantage  ;  but  while,  if  so  inclined,  he  could  perform  this 
amount  of  work  in  one  year,  ho  was  allowed  four  years  for 
its  completion.  Before  he  could  obtain  the  registry  of  his 
grant,  somewhat  analogous  to  a  Parliamentary  title  in 
Ireland,  he  should  be  returned  by  the  Commissioner  as 
having  executed  this  required  amount  of  work,  cleared 
five  acres,  built  a  house  at  least  sixteen  feet  square,  and 
actually  settled  as  a  resident  on  the  land  assigned  to  him. 
These  conditions  had  been  complied  with,  in  all  cases,  within 
the  four  years  allowed,  but  in  most  they  had  been  satisfied 
in  two  years,  and  by  a  considerable  number  of  the  settlers 
in  a  still  shorter  time.  When  the  return  is  made  by  the 
Commissioner,  who  visits  the  settlement  once  a  year,  the 


WE  ENTER  THE  SETTLEMENT. 


55 


grant  is  then  formally  registered  and  issued,  and  the  settler 
becomes  the  fee-simple  proprietor  of  100  acres  of  land, 
the  property  of  himself  and  his  family,  and  of  which  no 
power  on  earth  can  deprive  him  or  them.  Should  a  poor 
man  be  fortunate  enough  to  be  the  father  of  one,  or  two, 
or  more  sons,  of  the  age  of  eighteen yor  upwards,  he  can 
procure  100  acres  for  each  of  them  on  the  same  conditions  ; 
and  though  a  large  family  is  regarded  with  horror  by  your 
Malthusians  of  the  old  country,  it  is  a  blessing  of  inestim¬ 
able  value  in  a  new  country,  in  which  human  labour — that 
grandest  of  fertilisers  and  mightiest  of  civilisers — finds  its 
true  appreciation. 

The  first  tenement  which  the  settler  in  the  forest  con¬ 
trives  for  himself  is  a  camp,  or  shanty.  It  is  constructed 
of  logs  rudely  put  together,  the  interstices  filled  up  with 
moss,  leaves,  or  clay,  whatever  can  best  keep  out  the  wind 
and  the  cold  ;  the  roof  consisting  of  the  same  materials, 
further  protected  by  a  covering  of  bark,  eked  out,  it  may 
be,  wTitli  branches  of  the  pine,  the  spruce,  or  the  cedar. 
Warmed  by  a  stove,  or  carefully  prepared  fire-place,  the 
camp  or  shanty  is  considered  to  be  a  dwelling  of  surpassing 
comfort  by  the  settler  who  commences  his  first  winter  in 
the  forest.  In  a  year  or  two,  perhaps  a  longer  time,  the 
rude  camp  is  abandoned  for  the  more  spacious  and  elabo¬ 
rately  constructed  log  cabin,  or  log  house  ;  and  when  the 
settler  arrives  at  the  ‘  frame  house  ’  and  the  frame  barn,  he 
looks  upon  himself  as  having  reached  the  climax  of  earthly 
comfort,  and  even  the  highest  point  of  luxurious  accommo¬ 
dation  ;  though  possibly  in  a  few  years  after  the  frame 
house  gives  way  to  the  substantial  brick  dwelling,  por- 
ticoed,  and  pillared — the  glory  and  delight  of  its  hospitable 
owner. 

Jolting  and  jumping  over  many  an  agreeable  variety  in 
the  surface  of  the  road,  which  the  Bishop  and  I  regarded 
with  quite  opposite  feelings,  we  came  to  the  end  of  our 
verdant  avenue,  and  reached  a  little  eminence  crowned  by 


60 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


a  cl  lapel  of  modest  dimensions  and  unpretending  archi¬ 
tecture.  From  this  vantage  ground  the  first  portion  of 
the  Irish  settlement  of  Johnville  opened  out  before  us  ; 
and  though,  oil  that  sharp  October  day,  the  sun  but  occa¬ 
sionally  fit  up  the  landscape  with  its  cheerful  beams,  one 
could  easily  imagine  how  beautiful  in  must  appear  in 
summer,  when  the  wide  valley  is  filled  with  waving  corn, 
varied  with  bright  patches  of  potatoe,  and  the  surrounding 
woods  are  clad  in  all  the  varied  verdure  of  the  living 
forest.  Bounded  on  all  sides  by  a  wall  of  trees,  which  in 
one  direction  cover  a  range  of  mountains  as  beautiful  in 
their  outline  as  those  that  are  mirrored  in  the  sweet  waters 
of  Killarney,  an  undulating  plain  of  cleared  land  extends 
about  two  miles  in  length  by  a  mile  in  breadth,  dotted 
over  with  the  most  striking  evidences  of  man’s  presence 
and  the  progress  of  civilisation, — comfortable  dwellings, 
substantial  and  even  spacious  barns — horses,  cattle,  sheep, 
hogs,  and  poultry  of  all  kinds,  from  the  loud-crowing 
‘  rooster  ’  to  the  puddle-loving  duck  and  the  solemn 
goose.  Even  to  the  eye  of  an  Irish  farmer,  the  vast  plain 
before  us  would  have  presented  a  rough  and  rather  un¬ 
promising  aspect,  for  not  two  acres  of  the  many  hun¬ 
dred  already  ‘cleared’  were  yet  free  from  the  stumps 
of  the  great  trees  whose  lofty  branches  had  waved  and 
moaned  in  the  storms  of  ages.  The  road,  bounded  by  rude 
log  fences,  and  the  limits  of  each  holding  marked  out  in 
the  same  primitive  manner,  and  stumps  a  couple  of  feet 
high  plentifully  scattered  over  every  field, — this  at  the  first 
glance  would  not  favourably  impress  the  Irish  farmer,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  English  Yeoman  or  the  Scotch  Low- 
lander  ;  but  were  he  to  overcome  his  first  impressions  of 
the  strangeness  of  all  he  saw,  and  enquire  into  its  details, 
he  would  soon  discover  much  to  astonish  and  much  to 
gratify  him.  The  stumps,  that  impart  so  strange  and 
rough  an  appearance  to  an  early  settlement,  cannot  bo 
destroyed  or  eradicated  for  some  years  to  come  ;  yet,  from 


THE  FIRST  SIAN  AND  WOMAN. 


57 


tlio  first  year  that  the  trees  had  been  laid  low  by  the 
settler’s  axe,  abundant  crops  of  grain  and  potatoes  had 
been  raised  with  comparatively  little  trouble ;  and  large 
quantities  of  hay,  priceless  as  winter  food,  had  likewise 
borne  witness  to  the  fertility  of  the  soil  on  which  a  con¬ 
stant  succession  of  leaves  had  fallen  and  rotted  through 
countless  ages. 

In  the  fall  of  1861  the  first  settlers,  a  man  and  his  wife 
*  —Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hugh  M’Cann — entered  the  forest,  bring¬ 
ing  with  them  provisions  for  the  winter,  and  a  very 
moderate  stock  of  furniture  and  other  valuables,  which 
the  prudent  pair  had  accumulated  by  their  industry  in  the 
city  of  St.  John.  Through  a  mere  track,  the  oxen,  lent  by 
a  kindly  Irish  family,  slowly  dragged  after  them  the  entire 
worldly  wealth  of  this  stout-hearted  couple,  the  pioneers 
of  the  civilisation  so  soon  to  follow  in  their  footsteps. 
Right  in  the  midst  of  the  forest — never  before  trodden 
save  by  the  Indian,  the  lumberman,  or  the  wild  animal — 
the  M’Canns  setled  down,  resolved  to  brave  the  severity 
of  the  approaching  season.  The  first  thing  to  be  done 
was  to  erect  a  log  cabin,  and  for  the  rougher  portion  of 
this  indispensable  work  the  thrifty  pair  were  able  to  pay ; 
but  they  had  to  cover  their  dwelling  by  their  own  labour, 
which  they  did  with  great  pieces  of  bark  and  branches  torn 
from  the  trees  under  whose  shadow  they  took  up  their 
abode.  Here  then  they  were,  in  the  heart  of  what  to  them 
was  a  wilderness,  more  than  two  miles  from  a  human  habi¬ 
tation,  and  even  uncertain  of  the  way  by  which  they  could 
reach  the  outer  world ;  their  only  guide  being  either  a  faint 
track,  or  an  occasional  mark,  or  scar,  made  on  the  bark  of 
a  tree.  Still  they  were  not  in  the  least  degree  discouraged. 
Mrs.  M’Cann  had  pluck  and  cheerfulness  sufficient  for  a 
more  hazardous  enterprise.  With  a  good  stove,  and  an 
occasional  quilt  or  blanket,  suspended  on  the  walls  as 
tapestry,  the  cold  was  effectually  kept  out,  and  the  lonely 
] Lours  made  comfortable  during  the  bitter  winter.  Armed 


58 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


with  liis  keen  axe,  Hugh  cut  and  chopped  through  the 
months  while  the  snow  covered  the  ground ;  and  so  re¬ 
solutely  did  he  work,  that  when  the  white  mantle  vanished 
from  the  earth  before  the  warmth  of  the  spring,  the 
M’Canns  had  cleared  several  acres  of  their  land ;  and  in 
the  Autumn  of  1862  they  gathered  in  their  first  produce — 
an  abundant  harvest  of  potatoes,  oats,  and  buckwheat.  A 
proud  woman  was  Mrs.  Hugh  M’Cann,  as  she  did  the 
honours  of  her  forest  home  to  the  settlers  of  1862 ;  and 
prouder  still  as  she  afforded  hospitality  and  the  shelter  of 
her  warm  roof  to  many  who  had  yet  to  raise  a  dwelling 
over  their  heads.  I  could  well  appreciate  the  brave  and 
cheery  nature  of  this  humble  Irishwoman,  as  the  Bishop  and 
I — after  a  lengthened  and  somewhat  laborious  tour  through 
the  settlement — sat  before  the  well-replenished  stove  which 
had  so  often  warmed  the  limbs  of  the  wayfarer,  and  smiled 
its  ruddy  welcome  to  the  heart  of  the  exile  ;  and  I  listened 
to  Mrs.  M’Cann  while  she  chatted  gaily  to  her  guests, 
making  light  of  trials  and  difficulties  that  would  have 
daunted  many  a  lord  of  creation.  She  laughed,  as  she 
told  of  her  furniture  being  flung  by  a  surly  captain  on  the 
shore  of  the  river ;  how  she  lost  her  temper  ‘  with  the 
fellow,’  and  did  not  recover  it  for  ever  so  long ;  how  tartly 
she  replied,  in  a  spirit  not  of  the  mildest  theology,  to  the 
kindly-intentioned  queries  of  a  Free-will  Baptist ;  how  ‘  it 
was  as  good  as  any  theaytre'*  to  see  Hugh  and  herself 
tramping  after  the  lumbering  oxen,  and  all  their  cherished 
property  nodding  and  shaking  on  the  jolting  waggon ; 
how  Hugh  spent  a  portion  cf  his  first  Sunday — ‘  after 
saying  our  prayers,  Bishop,  by  all  means’ — in  making  the 
frame  of  the  door,  while  she  constructed  the  door  ‘with 
her  own  two  hands ;  ’  how  happy  they  felt  as,  the  cold 
being  effectually  barred  out,  they  sat  down  before  their 
bright  stove,  and  drank  a  rousing  cup  of  tea ;  how,  as  time 
rolled  on,  and  the  forest  receded  before  the  resolute  axe, 
and  the  fields  grew  in  dimensions,  and  cattle  lowed  round 


TI1E  SECOND  MAN  AND  WOMAN. 


58 


their  house,  and  liogs  grunted  in  the  piggery,  and  roosters 
and  their  wives  strutted  and  clucked,  she  had  a  tremendous 
battle  with  a  skunk  that  assailed  her  chickens,  and  how, 
single-handed,  and  appealing  in  vain  to  unheroic  or  sleepy 
Hugh,  she  slew  the  invader  of  infamous  odour,  and  then 
nearly  fainted  through  fatigue,  excitement,  and  the  over¬ 
powering  stencil  it  emitted  ;  how  as  many  as  sixteen  used 
to  he  at  night  on  every  available  spot  of  the  floor,  and  the 
priest  was  curtained  off  by  a  quilt  in  a  corner  to  himself  ; 
and  how,  with  the  help  of  God,  the  more  she  gave  the 
more  she  had  to  give.  A  pleasant  hour’s  chat  was  that 
with  Mrs.  M’Cann,  who  did  the  honours  of  her  log  cabin 
with  the  ease  of  a  duchess. 

The  second  woman  settler  merits  special  notice,  were  it 
only  to  prove,  to  would-be  sceptics,  that  the  relations  be¬ 
tween  the  landlord  and  the  tenant  in  the  old  country  have 
really  something  to  do  with  the  Irish  peasant’s  migration 
to  the  New  World. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Crehan,  of  Galway,  had  been  tenants  on 
a  certain  property  in  that  county ;  and  this  property 
having,  in  some  way  respecting  which  Mrs.  Crehan  was  a 
little  bewildering  in  her  explanation,  come  into  the  pos¬ 
session  of  a  gentleman  with  a  fine  old  Galwegian  name, 
the  tribulation  of  the  Crehans  commenced.  The  first 
thing  done  by  the  new  landlord  was  to  raise  the  rent  on 
his  tenants,  the  second  to  deprive  them  of  their  mountain 
pasture,  the  third  to  cut  off  the  shore  and  its  seaweed  from 
their  free  use,  and  the  fourth  to  persecute  a  cherished  pig 
with  degrading  pound,  and  its  indignant  owners  with 
harassing  fines.  It  is  the  last  drop  that  causes  the  glass 
to  overflow ;  and  possibly  the  wrongs  inflicted  on  the 
friend  of  the  family  and  traditional  rent-payer  filled  to 
overflowing  the  brimming  measure  of  their  woes  ;  for  the 
Crehans  made  up  their  minds  to  go  somewhere  —  any¬ 
where — £  to  the  end  of  the  world  ’ — rather  than  remain  in 
a  state  of  abject  vassalage,  dependent  on  the  caprice  or 


60 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


avarice  of  the  gentleman  with  the  fine  old  Galwegian  name, 
£  and  a  holy  Roman,  too,  if  you  plaze,’  as  Mrs.  Crehan 
scoffingly  assured  me.  The  Parish  Priest  was  consulted 
by  the  afflicted  pair  ;  and  he,  having  seen  the  letters  of  the 
Bishop  of  St.  John,  which  had  been  published  in  the  Irish 
papers,  advised  them  to  proceed  at  once  to  New  Bruns¬ 
wick,  and  take  land  for  themselves  and  their  children  in  the 
Johnville  settlement,  £  where  no  man  or  no  law  can  take  it 
from  you  or  them,’  added  their  counsellor.  The  advice  was 
instantly  adopted  by  the  Crehans,  to  whom  the  now  wiser 
landlord  would  have  been  glad  to  let  a  much  larger  farm 
than  that  whose  rent  he  had  so  arbitrarily  raised.  But  it 
v$as  too  late;  and  so,  after  paying,  £to  the  last  farthing, 
everything  they  owed  in  the  world,’  they  took  ship  for 
St.  John  with  their  large  family  of  children,  their  hard- 
earned  savings,  and,  what  they  prized  scarcely  less,  a  letter 
from  their  Parish  Priest  to  the  Bishop. 

On  their  arrival  in  St.  J ohn  they  lost  no  time  in  seeking 
the  Bishop,  to  whom  they  presented  their  only  credential, 
the  letter  that  was  £  to  make  a  landlord  of  Dinny.’  The 
wife  at  that  time  spoke  English  imperfectly,  while  the 
husband  understood  no  other  language  than  that  which  is 
the  sweetest  to  the  ear  and  the  softest  to  the  tongue  of 
the  Connaught  peasant ;  and  clustering  round  this  seem¬ 
ingly  helpless  couple,  was  a  swarm  of  young  children, 
some  little  more  than  toddling  infants.  As  the  Bishop 
heard  their  story,  and  glanced  at  the  group  of  young 
creatures,  he  looked  upon  the  case  as  almost  desperate  :  the 
husband,  who  had  to  rely  on  his  wife’s  somewhat  question¬ 
able  powers  as  an  interpreter,  might  not  be  able  to  make 
himself  understood,  and  probably  the  struggle  would  be  too 
severe  for  the  children.  Therefore  he  so  ght  to  dissuade 
them  from  the  attempt  which  they  were  so  anxious  to 
make.  But  to  go  into  the  forest  they  were  determined, 
and  go  into  it  they  did — with  a  result  which  is  pleasant 
to  narrate. 


CELTIC  ENERGY. 


Cl 


Tlicir  entire  worldly  means  consisted  of  20 L,  with  which 
they  had  to  provide  every  necessary  for  a  large  family 
until  the  first  crop  could  be  reaped  and  gathered  in. 
There  was,  however,  the  right  stuff  in  the  poor  Galway 
emigrants,  although  they  wrere  of  the  purest  type  of  that 
Celtic  race  of  whose  capacity  your  self-complacent  Anglo- 
Saxon  stupidly  affects  to  despair.  In  an  incredibly  short 
space  of  time  the  Crelians  had  a  sufficient  quantity  of  land 
cleared,  fenced,  and  cropped,  a  spacious  log  house  and 
ample  barn  constructed ;  a  horse,  and  cows,  and  hogs, 
and  sheep*  were  purchased,  or  raised  on  this  farm  in  the 
wilderness  ;  and  when  the  Bishop  and  I  walked  through 
their  property,  and  inspected  their  wealth  in  barn  and 
field,  these  despised  and  persecuted  peasants  were  in 
possession  of  200  acres  of  land,  and  such  independence  as 
they  never  dreamed  of  in  Galway. 

Volubly  did  Mrs.  Crehan — a  dark-haired,  sharp-eyed, 
comely  matron — tell  of  her  treatment  in  Ireland,  and  her 
trials  in  her  new  home,  as  she  welcomed  the  Bishop  and 
{ the  gentleman  from  the  ould  country  ’  into  her  log  cabin, 
which,  in  a  few  days,  she  was  to  abandon  for  a  grand 
frame  house,  constructed  on  the  most  approved  principles 
of  American  domestic  architecture.  This  mansion  was  evi¬ 
dently  an  object  of  the  most  intense  pride  to  Mrs.  Crehan, 
who  was  much  complimented  by  the  expression  of  our  de¬ 
sire  to  see  it.  As  we  proceeded  towards  the  new  build¬ 
ing,  which  was  then  receiving  its  protecting  coat  of  ‘  shingle,’ 
I  remarked  that  she  must  have  felt  somewhat  lonely  on  her 
first  entrance  into  the  forest. 

4  Tlirue  for  you,  sir,  it  was  lonely  for  us,  and  not  a  living 
sowl  near  us,  but  the  childer.  Indeed,  sir,  Twas  only  by  an 
ould  stump  that  I  knew  whether  I  was  near  home  or 
not  ;  and  other  times  we  couldn’t  find  our  way  at  all,  only 
for  a  cut  on  a  tree.  And  ’twas  the  owls — the  divils! — 
that  would  make  a  body’s  heart  jump  into  their  mouth. 
Oh,  sir,  they  screeched  and  screeched,  I  declare,  like  any 


62 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


Christian,  till  they  frightened  the  childer  out  of  their  sivin 
sinses.  The  little  boy — he’s  a  tine  fellow  now — would  catch 
hould  of  me  by  the  gownd,  and  cry  out,  “  Oh  mammy, 
mammy !  what  a  place  daddy  brought  us  to  ! — we’ll  be  all 
ate  up  to-night— mammy,  mammy,  we’ll  be  aH  ate  up  to¬ 
night.”  You  know,  sir,  it’s  easy  to  frighten  childer,  the 
craychers,’  apologised  the  mother. 

‘But,  Mrs.  Crelian,  I  suppose  you  don’t  regret  having 
come  here  ?  ’ 

‘Deed  then  no,  sir,  not  a  bit  of  it.  No,  thanks  be  to  the 
Lord,  and  blessed  be  His  holy  name !  We  have  plenty  to 
ate  and  drink,  and  a  good  bed  to  he  on,  and  a  warm  roof 
over  our  heads,  and,  what’s  more  than  that,  all  we  have 
is  our  own,  and  no  one  to  take  it  from  us,  or  to  say  “  boo  ” 
to  us.  The  grief  I  have  is  that  there’s  only  the  200  acres 
— for  I’d  dearly  like  another  hundred  for  the  second 
boy.  And,  sir,  if  you  ever  happen  to  go  to  Galway  and 
see  Mr.  Blank  (the  gentleman  with  the  fine  old  Gal¬ 
wegian  name),  you  may  tell  him  from  me,  that  I’m  better 
off  than  himself,  and  more  indipindent  in  my  mind ; 
and  teU  him,  sir,  all  the  harm  I  wish  him  is  for  him 
to  know  that  much.  ’Twas  the  lucky  day  he  took  our 
turf  and  the  sayweed — and  a  bad  weed  he  was,  the  Lord 
knows.’ 

‘  Mrs.  Crehan,  where’s  the  ould  man  ?  ’  asked  a  crabbed 
little  fellow,  who  seemed  anxious  to  do  the  honours  of  the 
settlement  to  the  strange  gentleman,  and  who  would  keep 
us  company,  for  a  bit  of  the  road.’ 

‘Where  is  he  gone,  is  it?  Why  then,  Jimmy,  lie’s  gone 
to  seU  a  cow,’  was  the  good  woman’s  reply. 

‘  Gone  to  seU  a  cow  !  ’  exclaimed  Jimmy,  with  an  expres¬ 
sion  of  affected  horror.  ‘Yea,  Mrs.  Crehan,  ma’am,  what 
do  you  want  partin’  with  your  beautiful  cow  ?  ’ 

‘What  do  I  want  partin’  with  the  cow,  is  it?  Then, 
Jimmy,  it’s  to  pay  what  I  owe,  and  I  don’t  like  to  be  in 
debt ;  that’s  what  it  manes,  Jimmy.’ 


JIMMY  M’ALLISTER. 


C3 


‘Bra  to,  Mrs.  Crehan !  ’  said  tlie  Bishop  ;  ‘I  admire  your 
principle.  Never  be  in  debt,  if  you  possibly  can  avoid  it.’ 

Jimmy  was  silenced,  thinking  perhaps  that  Mrs.  Crehan 
had  the  best  of  the  argument,  the  more  so  as  his  lordship 
was  on  her  side. 

Jimmy  M‘Allister  may  not  be  the  wisest  or  most  saga¬ 
cious  adult  male  in  the  settlement ;  but,  fortunately  for 
him,  he  has  a  better  half,  who  looks  sharply  after  all 
things,  Jimmy  included.  Mrs.  M‘Allister  is  of  so  thrifty 
a  turn  that  she  would  pick  a  feather  off  the  road  ;  and 
indeed  so  successfully  had  she  picked  up  and  bartered  this 
article  of  comfort  and  commerce,  that  she  was  then  after 
selling  four  good  beds  for  the  respectable  sum  of  1G/. — no 
small  addition  to  the  annual  revenue  of  the  McAllisters. 
Jimmy  was  of  a  different  turn  of  mind :  he  would  rather 
pick  up  a  grievance  than  a  feather ;  and  the  want  of  a  priest 
for  the  settlement  was  a  topic  on  which  he  dilated  with 
persistent  eloquence,  notwithstanding  the  Bishop’s  repeated 
assurances  that  there  would  be  a  resident  priest  in  the 
course  of  the  following  spring. 

‘  But,  my  lord,’  persisted  Jimmy,  ‘  lie’s  wanted  bad  ;  and 
that’s  no  lie.  Faith,  my  lord,  a  body  may  die  three  times 
over  in  this  place  before  he  could  send  for  the  priest ;  and 
as  for  that,  a  poor  fellow  mightn’t  have  the  dollars  con- 
vaynient  to  send  for  the  doctor — two  dollars  goin’  and  two 
dollars  cornin’ — Be  dad,  my  lord - ’ 

‘Well,  Jimmy,  please  God,  you  shall  have  the  priest 
next  spring,’  said  the  Bishop. 

‘That  may  all  be  thrue,  sir — my  lord! — but,  after  all,  a 
body  may  die  three  times  over  before  he  could  send  for  him, 
and  then,  my  lord - ’ 

‘Very  well,  Jimmy,  you  will  be  sure  to  have  him,’  said 
the  Bishop  with  additional  emphasis,  in  the  hope  of  satis¬ 
fying  the  unappeasable  grievance-monger. 

‘  And,  my  lord,  sure  this  settlement  is  well  able  to 
support  its  own  priest,  and  I  tell  you  he’s  much  wanted 


61 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA, 


—  and,  for  the  matter  of  that,  a  poor  body  may  die  three 
times  over  before  he  could  be  able  to  send  for  him - ’ 

A  rumour  that  Mrs.  MAllister  was  in  sight  had  a  mar¬ 
vellous  influence  on  Jimmy,  who  asked  for  and  obtained 
a  ready  leave  of  absence  from  the  Bishop,  on  the  plea  of 
‘urgent  private  business,’  which,  in  his  zeal  for  the  spir¬ 
itual  welfare  of  his  fellow-sinners,  he  had  altogether  for¬ 
gotten.  Jimmy  rapidly  fell  behind,  and  was  not  seen  till 
the  following  morning. 

Amongst  other  settlers  whom  we  visited,  was  a  Cork 
man,  named  Reilly,  from  beyond  Macroom,  and  who, 
c  every  day  he  rose  in  the  old  country  saw  Ballyvourney 
before  his  two  eyes.’  Reilly  was  a  man  of  middle  age, 
grave  countenance,  handsome  features,  including  a  marked 
aquiline  nose,  of  deliberate  utterance,  the  richest  of  Mun¬ 
ster  brogues,  and  a  splendid  faculty  for  rolling  the  ‘  r  ’  like 
the  rattle  of  a  drum  under  the  hands  of  a  Frenchman ; 
and  it  would  seem  as  if  honest  Reilly  had  a  preference 
for  words  that  enabled  him  to  display  this  faculty  to  the 
greatest  perfection.  The  manner  in  which  he  pronounced 
‘your  lordship,’  ‘your-r-r  lor-r-rdship,’  was  grand. 

Reilly  had  come  out  in  the  May  of  18G2  ;  and  all  he  had, 
besides  an  immense  family — there  were  eleven  children 
in  the  settlement  in  October  I860 — was  a  little  money  for 
provisions,  and  an  axe.  But  the  man,  and  the  axe,  and 
the  will  and  power  to  use  it,  were  ‘  with  God’s  help,’  equal 
to  the  work  to  be  done  ;  and  so  resolutely  did  he  set  to 
his  task,  so  vigorously  did  he  and  his  eldest  boy  hew  away 
at  the  forest,  that  he  was  enabled  to  gather  in  100  bushels 
of  potatoes  that  fall.  These,  and  what  remained  in  the 
flour-barrel,  kept  the  wolf  from  the  door  of  Reilly’s  little 
slieepfold.  And  so  the  stout  Cork  man  and  his  sturdy 
boy  toiled  on,  season  after  season,  and  year  after  year,  until, 
in  October  1866,  the  settler  of  1862  had  cleared  between 
forty  and  fifty  acres  of  land,  and  was  the  owner  of  two 
yoke  of  oxen,  six  cows,  several  sheep  and  hogs,  a  good  log 


MR.  REILLY  FROM  B ALL Y V OURNE Y 


G5 


house,  to  which  he  had  just  added  a  commodious  loft,  a 
fine  barn,  a  piggery  of  suitable  strength  and  dimensions. 

‘  Well,  Reilly,  I  congratulate  you,’  said  the  Bishop. 
‘Wliat  you  have  done  in  the  time  is  most  creditable  to 
you.’ 

‘  Well,  my  lord,  I  am  getting  along  purty  well,  I  thank 
my  Maker  for  it.  We  have  raison  to  be  grateful  and  con¬ 
tented,  your  lordship,  with  what  we’ve  done.  There  is 
a  good  prospect  for  us  and  the  children,  the  Lord  be 
praised !  Sure  enough,  ’twas  a  great  change  from  the  ould 
country  to  this.  Glory,  too,  to  the  Lord  for  that  same  !  ’ 

It  may  be  remarked,  that  my  excellent  countryman 
secured  to  himself  in  this  short  speech  ample  opportunity 
for  the  display  of  his  r’s,  which  came  magnificently  into 
play. 

A  glance  into  the  comfortable  and  spacious  house,  where 
Mrs.  Reilly  was  employed  in  dressing  a  plump  represen¬ 
tative  of  the  Reillys,  afforded  material  for  pleasing  specu¬ 
lation  ;  for  near  the  big  table  at  the  opposite  side  of  the 
room,  stood  a  pair,  whose  conscious  manner — the  same 
kind  of  thing  one  may  see  in  a  drawing-room — evidently 
portended  speedy  employment  for  the  resident  priest  for 
whose  advent  Jimmy  M‘Allister  so  ardently  sighed. 

Having  visited  many  of  the  houses  in  the  first  great 
clearance,  we  drove  through  the  forest,  a  distance  of  two 
miles,  and  came  to  a  plain  or  valley  of  far  greater  extent, 
stretching  five  miles  in  one  direction,  but  similar  in  its 
leading  features  to  that  which  we  had  just  left.  It  may 
be  remarked,  in  order  to  be  accurate,  that  the  Crelian 
family  were  among  the  occupiers  of  this  portion  of  the 
settlement ;  but  as  Mrs.  Crelian  was  the  second  woman 
who  had  braved  the  difficulties  of  a  life  amidst  the  woods, 
I  somewhat  anticipated  in  her  case.  The  vast  tract 
stretching  out  before  us  was  reclaimed,  or  cleared,  on  the 
low  ground,  and  on  the  gentle  elevation,  and  up  the  side 
of  the  mountain  range  that  ran  parallel  to  the  plain 


66 


TOE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


Here,  as  in  the  first  clearance,  were  the  same  evidences  of 
the  presence  of  man  and  the  power  of  that  most  effective 
capital  of  all — human  labour  well  directed.  Decent  houses 
and  ample  barns  were  to  be  seen  in  every  direction  ; 
and,  what  was  the  most  hopeful  indication  of  the  thrift 
and  energy  of  the  settlers,  was  the  fact  that,  in  very  many 
instances,  while  the  family  still  remained  in  the  primitive 
log  house,  the  barn  for  the  reception  and  storage  of  grain 
and  other  produce  was  large,  substantial,  and  built  in  the 
best  style  common  to  the  province.  In  numerous  cases 
we  found  settlers  to  possess  two  frame  barns,  with  spacious 
piggeries  constructed  of  logs,  from  which  the  well-known 
melodious  sounds  unceasingly  issued.  In  a  very  rare 
instance  was  the  original  camp  or  shanty  tenanted ;  but 
where  it  was  still  the  dwelling-place  of  the  family,  a  fair 
proportion  of  the  land  was  cleared,  and  a  good  barn  was 
filled  with  the  produce  of  a  prosperous  season. 

One  of  the  settlers,  named  M£Mahon,  had  just  com¬ 
pleted  a  frame  house  which,  for  extent,  outward  appear¬ 
ance,  and  inferior  comfort  and  accommodation,  was  equal 
to  almost  any  farmer’s  dwelling  I  had  seen  in  New  Bruns¬ 
wick,  from  Shediac  to  St.  John,  or  from  St.  John  to 
Johnville — a  distance  of  300  miles.  M ‘Mahon  had  brought 
some  capital  into  the  forest,  the  result  of  his  industry 
as  a  blacksmith.  His  new  trade  appeared  to  thrive  with 
him,  as  he  was  surrounded  with  the  most  convincing  evi¬ 
dences  of  prosperity  and  comfort. 

It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed  that  all  who  came 
into  the  settlement  brought  more  or  less  pecuniary  capital 
with  them.  Many — indeed,  the  majority — commenced 
without  any  capital  save  that  comprised  in  their  health, 
their  strength,  and  their  willingness  to  work.  ‘  Nothing, 
sir,  but  my  own  four  bones,  a  sharp  axe,  and  the  help  of 
the  Lord,’  was  the  pithy  and  pious  response  of  more  than 
one  toiler  in  the  forest,  as  he  was  asked  of  his  struggles 
and  success.  This  is  how  the  settler  with  no  capital  save 


now  THE  MAN  OF  NO  CAPITAL  GETS  ALONG. 


67 


that  indicated  in  the  reply  mentioned,  managed  to  cget 
along.’  Having  earned,  by  working  for  others,  as  much 
as  enabled  him  to  procure  an  axe  and  provisions  for  a 
month  or  two,  he  boldly  faced  the  forest,  perhaps  with  a 
wife  and  one  or  more  children.  Fortunate  was  the  settler 
if  he  could  obtain  the  friendly  assistance  of  a  neighbour 
to  raise  the  first  rude  shelter  for  his  young  wife  and  her 
infants ;  but  in  the  earlier  period  of  the  short  history  of 
the  settlement  such  assistance  was  not  always  procurable, 
and  the  pioneer  of  future  civilisation  had  to  construct  his 
shanty  ‘any  how  he  could.’  Satisfied  that  he  had  thu.3 
secured  a  home  for  his  wife  and  little  ones,  he  laid  about 
him  vigorously  with  his  keen  axe,  smiting  many  a  tree 
which  would  have  formed  the  proudest  ornament  of  an 
English  park,  and  prostrating  pine,  beech,  oak,  and  maple, 
with  the  same  unsparing  energy.  The  rapid  decrease  of 
the  scanty  provisions  would  but  too  soon  warn  the  bread¬ 
winner  that  he  must  linger  no  longer  in  the  camp  ;  and 
.  eaving  his  loved  ones  to  the  protection  of  Providence,  he 
would  again  go  out  in  search  of  work,  which  was  always  to 
be  found.  On  the  Saturday  night  the  poor  fellow  might 
be  seen — by  the  owls,  were  those  grave  birds  on  the  look¬ 
out,  or  by  a  casual  wayfarer  like  himself — trudging  along 
the  rough  highway,  or  rude  track,  bearing  on  his  shoulders 
the  grateful  burden  of  the  next  month’s  provisions,  won 
in  the  sweat  of  his  brow  by  honest  toil.  Thus  he  would 
work  occasionally  for  others, -and  then  slash  around  him 
with  his  trusty  axe,  until  he  had  cleared  a  few  acres,  and 
planted  them  with  grain  and  potatoes,  built  a  barn,  and 
gathered  in  the  first  blessed  fruits  of  his  industry.  And 
so  on,  from  the  shanty  to  the  log  cabin,  from  the  log 
cabin  to  the  frame  house,  and  the  couple  of  barns,  and 
the  yoke  of  oxen,  and  the  milch  cows,  and  the  flock  of 
sheep,  and  the-  great  breeding  sow  and  her  clamorous 
offspring, — so  on  to  independence,  comfort,  and  content. 
This  is  literally  the  substance  of  many  a  simple  tale. 


f)8 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


gratefully  volunteered,  or  easily  elicited  by  a  few  leading 
questions. 

The  settlers  of  Johnville  are  invariably  kind  to  each 
other,  freely  lending  to  a  neighbour  the  aid  which  they 
may  have  the  next  day  to  solicit  for  themselves.  By 
this  mutual  and  ungrudging  assistance,  the  construction 
of  a  dwelling,  or  the  rolling  of  logs  and  piling  them  in 
a  heap  for  future  burning,  has  been  quickly  and  easily 
accomplished ;  and  crops  have  been  cut  and  gathered 
in  safely,  which  without  such  neighbourly  aid  might  have 
been  irrecoverably  lost.  This  necessary  dependence  on 
each  other  for  mutual  help  in  the  hour  of  difficulty  draws 
the  scattered  settlers  together  by  ties  of  sympathy  and 
friendship  ;  and  while  none  envy  the  progress  of  a  neigh¬ 
bour,  whose  success  is  rather  a  subject  for  general  con¬ 
gratulation,  the  affliction  of  one  of  these  humble  families 
brings  a  common  sorrow  to  every  home.  I  witnessed  a 
touching  illustration  of  this  fraternal  and  Christian  sym¬ 
pathy.  Even  in  the  heart  of  the  primitive  forest  we  have 
sickness,  and  death,  and  frenzied  grief,  just  as  in  cities 
with  histories  that  go  back  a  thousand  years.  A  few  days 
previous  to  my  visit  a  poor  fellow  had  become  mad,  his 
insanity  being  attributed  to  the  loss  of  his  young  wfife, 
whose  death  left  him  a  despairing  widower  with  four  infant 
children.  He  had  just  been  conveyed  to  the  lunatic 
asylum,  and  his  orphans  were  already  taken  by  the  neigh¬ 
bours,  and  made  part  of  their  families.  One  of  them 
peered  curiously  at  my  companion  and  myself  from  under 
the  peak  of  a  huge  fur  cap  that  almost  rested  on  his  little 
nose,  as  the  Bishop  was  enquiring  after  the  family  of  a 
fortunate  settler,  named  Murphy,  who  had  brought  the 
eldest  of  the  orphans  to  his  comfortable  home.  How  long 
these  tender  sympathies  and  beautiful  charities  may  resist 
the  influence  of  selfishness,  or  civilisation,  I  know  not ;  but 
that  they  then  existed  in  strength  and  holiness  I  was 
abundantly  convinced. 


ONE  CAUSE  OF  SUCCESS. 


«9 


To  one  cause  may  be  attributed  some  of  the  success 
which  has  crowned  the  labours  of  these  Irish  settlers,  and 
the  wishes  of  their  Bishop  and  his  zealous  co-operator,  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Connolly,  the  good  priest  of  Woodstock, — the  ab¬ 
sence  of  intoxicating  drink,  or  the  prevention  of  its  sale 
in  the  settlement.  What  village  in  England  or  Ireland 
with  a  population  of  600  souls — that  of  Johnville  in  the 
autumn  of  1866 — is  without  its  ‘  publick  ?  ’  Scarcely  one  ; 
while  the  probability  is  that  many  villages  of  an  equal 
population  in  the  old  country  possess  two  of  such  estab¬ 
lishments.  Against  the  sale  of  spirits  in  the  settlement 
the  Bishop  has  resolutely  set  his  face,  and  in  this  salutary 
policy  he  has  the  hearty  co-operation  of  the  pastor  of 
Woodstock,  to  whom  much  of  the  merit  of  the  organisation 
and  fortunate  progress  of  the  colony  belongs.  Rarely  is 
spirituous  liquor  of  any  kind  brought  into  the  house  of  a 
settler,  and,  save  in  some  special  instance,  after  a  hard 
day’s  wrork,  in  which  many  persons  are  necessarily  joined, 
it  is  as  rarely  tasted  by  this  simple  and  sinless  people.  I 
must,  however,  admit  that,  on  our  return  through  the 
entrance  avenue,  we  did  meet  with  an  elderly  gentleman, 
who  must  have  been  enjoying  himself  while  visiting  a 
friend  beyond  the  limits  of  the  settlement  ;  for  not  only 
were  his  powers  as  a  charioteer  considerably  impaired,  but 
his  damaged  articulation  imparted  a  still  more  bewildering 
intricacy  to  cthe  explanation  of  his  discreditable  conduct,’ 
with  which,  o*n  demand,  he  favoured  the  Bishop. 

The  material  progress  of  this  Irish  settlement  may  be 
illustrated  by  a  significant  fact — that  fat  cattle  to  the 
value  of  200 1.  were  sold  to  buyers  from  the  States  the  day 
of  my  visit.  What  were  the  feelings  of  Jimmy  McAllister, 
as  he  heard  of  this  tremendous  sacrifice  of  live  stock, 
and  which  included  the  cow  of  Mrs.  Crehan,  that  ex¬ 
cited  his  special  interest,  it  would  be  difficult  to  depict ; 
but  the  fact  of  this  remarkable  sale  of  the  surplus  stock 
of  a  young  colony  was  mentioned  with  pride  by  one  of 


70 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


the  most  intelligent  and  energetic  of  the  settlers,  Mr 
Boyd. 

Boyd  was  one  of  the  few  who  brought  a  little  capital 
with  them  into  the  settlement.  But  by  far  his  best 
and  most  useful  capital  consisted  of  four  well-grown, 
healthy,  active  sons,  and  an  intelligent  and  hard-working 
daughter,  who  adds  the  functions  of  post-mistress  to  the 
more  laborious  and  profitable  duties  of  housekeeper.  Each 
of  the  young  Boyds  has  100  acres  of  land  in  his  own  right, 
though  they  all  wisely  keep  together  as  one  family,  and 
probably  will  continue  to  do  so  until  circumstances,  over 
which  young  people  generally  have  cno  control,’  compel 
them  to  prepare  for  events  by  no  means  unlikely  in  an 
Irish  colony.  One  of  the  ‘  boys  ’  was  finishing  a  splendid 
barn,  another  barn  being  filled  to  bursting  with  grain  of 
all  kinds.  The  father  admitted  that  the  property  then 
possessed  by  the  family — himself  and  his  four  sons — was 
fairly  worth  1,000/. 

According  to  the  census,  taken  at  the  instance  of  the 
Bishop,  the  estimated  value  of  the  land  cleared,  with  the 
stock,  the  produce,  and  the  buildings,  up  to  the  fall  of 
1865,  was  14,500/. — an  immense  sum,  when  it  is  remem¬ 
bered  that  up  to  May  1862  there  had  been  but  one  family 
(Hugh  M ‘Can n  and  his  wife)  in  the  settlement,  and  it  was 
not  until- 1863  that  the  greater  number  of  the  residents* 
had  ventured  into  the  forest.  It  was  supposed  that  the 
estimate  for  1866  would  have  reached  20,000/.  And  if 
such  be  the  result  of  a  few  years — three  or  four  at  the 
very  utmost — of  patient  industry,  stimulated  by  the  cer¬ 
tainty  of  reward  and  the  security  of  its  possession,  what 
may  not  be  looked  for  ten  years  hence,  when  science  and 
matured  experience  are  brought  to  the  aid  of  human  toil 
and  manly  energy  ? 

Early  on  the  Sunday  morning  the  roads  presented 
an  unusually  animated  appearance,  as  groups  of  settlers 
moved  towards  the  little  chapel  in  which  the  Bishop  was 


MASS  IN  TI1E  FOREST. 


71 


to  celebrate  Mass  at  eight  o’clock.  Keen  was  the  wind 
and  sharp  the  air  as  the  faithful  appeared  in  view,  issuing 
from  the  forest  in  various  directions,  lome  with  horse  and 
waggon,  but  the  greater  number  sturdily  completing  a 
smart  walk  of  five,  six,  and  even  ten  miles.  Bright  and 
cheerful  and  happy  they  all  appeared  on  this  auspicious 
occasion,  when  they  were  to  hear  the  voice  of  their  pastor, 
and  join  in  the  most  solemn  act  of  Christian  worship. 
There  was  no  tawdry  finery  among  the  women,  no  dressing 
beyond  their  condition  with  the  men ;  both  were  decently 
and  suitably  clad,  good  strong  homespun  being  rather 
common  with  the  latter.  That  the  ladies  had  not  ex- 
haused  the  wealth  of  their  wardrobes,  or  brought  out 
their  best  at  so  unfavourable  an  hour  for  legitimate  dis¬ 
play,  I  was  impressively  assured;  and  more  than  one  of 
the  sex — in  each  case  a  matron  of  mature  years — volun¬ 
teered  an  apology  for  alleged  inelegance  of  costume,  the 
result,  as  they  urged  in  extenuation  of  their  sins  against 
Fashion,  of  the  haste  required  in  order  ‘  to  overtake  Mass.’ 
As  a  proof  that  there  is  no  lack  of  sympathy  between  the 
occupant  of  the  palace  and  the  tenant  of  the  wilderness,  I 
may  mention,  as  an  interesting  fact,  that  on  the  wall  of  the 
bed-room,  in  which  I  enjoyed  my  first  and  last  night’s  repose 
in  the  midst  of  an  American  forest,  I  observed  a  specimen 
of  that  intricate  arrangement  which  is  said  to  have  had  a 
royal  origin,  and  is  known  to  the  world,  admired  or  exe¬ 
crated,  by  the  name  of  crinoline.  This  is  given  as  an 
instance,  not  alone  of  the  omnipotent  rule  and  universal 
sway  of  Fashion,  but  of  the  progress  of  an  Irish  settle¬ 
ment  in  the  path  of  modern  civilisation. 

Beneath  the  groined  roof  of  lofty  cathedral  there  never 
knelt  a  more  devout  congregation  than  that  which  bowed 
in  lowly  reverence  before  the  rude  altar  of  the  little  rustic 
chapel  of  Johnville.  Here  was  no  magnificence  of  archi¬ 
tecture,  no  pomp  of  ceremonial,  no  pealing  organ,  no 
glorious  work  of  the  great  masters  of  sacred  song ;  here 


72 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


were  no  gorgeous  pictures  glowing  from  painted  windows, 
no  myriad  lights  on  the  altar  and  in  the  sanctuary,  no 
priests  in  golden  vestments,  no  robed  attendants  swinging 
silver  thuribles  filled  with  perfumed  incense,- — none  of 
these ;  but  a  little  structure  of  the  simplest  form,  covered 
with  shingle,  and  as  free  from  ornament  or  decoration  as 
the  shanty  of  the  settler — with  an  altar  of  boards  clumsily 
put  together,  and  covered  with  a  clean  but  scanty  linen 
cloth.  But  those  who  knelt  there  that  morning  felt  no 
want,  missed  no  accessory,  sighed  for  no  splendour ;  their 
piety  required  no  aid  to  inflame  or  sustain  it.  Exiles 
from  a  Catholic  land,  they  were  once  more  under  a  sacred 
roof,  once  more  listening  to  the  voice  of  their  Church — once 
more  assisting  at  the  celebration  of  Mass.  And  when  the 
Bishop  addressed  them  in  simple  and  impressive  language, 
such  as  a  father  might  fittingly  address  to  his  children, 
and  promised  that  he  was  about  to  gratify  the  wish  of  their 
hearts  by  sending  a  priest  to  live  amongst  them,  a  deep 
murmur  of  delight  evinced  the  joy  and  gratitude  of  the 
devoted  people.  These,  indeed,  were  tidings  of  gladness, 
the  fulfilment  of  their  fondest  hopes,  wanting  which,  ma¬ 
terial  comfort  and  worldly  prosperity  would  be  in  vain. 

Through  one  door  the  women  passed  out,  through  the 
other  the  men.  By  the  latter  sex  I  was  at  once  surrounded, 
and  I  was  soon  satisfied  that  every  province  and  most  of 
the  counties  in  Ireland  had  a  representative  in  that  con¬ 
gregation.  For  a  good  hour  they  talked  and  chatted  out¬ 
side  the  little  church,  though  the  air  wras  keen  and  the 
morning  still  raw.  They  eagerly  enquired  after  places  as 
well  as  persons,  priests  or  politicians,  and  c  how  the  old  coun¬ 
try  was  getting  on/  and  ‘  whether  anything  was  really  to  be 
done  for  it  ?  ’  One  gave  a  case  of  oppression,  another  of 
hopeless  struggle  against  rack  rent  Or  insecure  tenure,  as 
the  reason  of  his  flight  from  the  land  of  his  fathers.  But 
of  their  new  home  not  one  had  a  desponding  word  to  say. 
They  spoke  with  pride  of  their  hard  work,  and  their  steady 


NEITHER  RENT  NOR  *  GALE/ 


73 


progress,  and  tlie  future  which  they  confidently  anti¬ 
cipated. 

‘Well,  thank  God,  ’tis  our  own,  any  how,  and  nobody  can 
take  it  from  us,’  said  one  of  the  settlers  ;  to  which  there 
was  a  general  chorus  of  ‘amens,’  and  ‘true  for  you.’ 

‘  Take  care,  Mick,  you  havn’t  the  half-year’s  rent  ready ; 
so  don’t  be  crowing.’ 

This  pleasant  sally  from  a  wTag  much  tickled  the  audience, 
who,  to  do  them  justice,  were  willing  to  laugh  at  the  small¬ 
est  joke. 

‘  ’Tis  true,  Dan,  boy  ;  but  there’s  nobody  lookin’  for  it,’ 
replied  Mick,  who  added,  in  a  voice  of  affected  commisera¬ 
tion  that  was  ‘  as  good  as  a  play,’  and  was  rewarded  with  an 
approving  shout — ‘  but,  faith,  I’m  thinking  the  agint  has 
the  mazles,  or  the  rhumatiz,  poor  man !  or  he’d  be  here 
before  now  for  it.’ 

‘Jimmy’ — to  my  friend  of  the  day  before — ‘is  your 
gale  to  the  fore?’  asked  a  pleasant  -  looking  Tipperary 
boy. 

‘  Little  wTe  trouble  ourselves  with  gales,  or  storms  aither, 
in  these  parts,’  replied  Mr.  M‘Allister,  whose  innocent 
wit  was  rewarded  with  such  vociferous  applause  that  I 
dreaded  the  effect  on  his  naturally  abundant  vanity. 

‘  True  for  you,  Jimmy,  the  misthress  attends  to  the  rint, 
and  that  kind  of  business.  I  hope  she’ll  be  sure  and  keep 
the  resate, — ’tis  bad  to  lose  the  writin’ — as  I  know,  to 
my  cost.’ 

‘  There’s  a  boy,’  said  Mr.  M‘Allister,  pointing  to  a  vigor¬ 
ous  young  settler  of  some  six  feet  in  his  vamps,  ‘and  I 
ask  you,  sir,  this  blessed  morning,  wasn’t  it  a  mortial  sin 
to  turn  his  father,  and  three  boys  as  likely  as  himself,  out 
of  the  ould  country?  Sheep  they  wanted,  indeed!  Chris¬ 
tians  wouldn’t  do  ’em.  Well,  the  Lord  had  a  hand  in  it, 
after  all,  for  here  they  are,  all  the  boys,  with  their  hun¬ 
dred  acres  apiece  ;  and  what  do  you  think,  sir — eh, 

Terrence,  my  buck !  Faith,  sir,  lie’s  looking  out  already. 

4 


74 


niE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


Don’t  mind  tlie  boys,  laughing,  Terry  ;  you’ll  never  do  it 
younger.  But,  sir,  there  they  are,  them  four  fine  lads,  and 
every  man  of  them  the  lord  of  his  own  estate.  After  all, 
there’s  nothing  like  being  a  man’s  own  master.’ 

‘He  doesn’t  always  be  that  same,  Mr.  MAllister,  when 
once  he’s  married,’  suggested  one  of  the  bystanders,  with 
a  sly  twinkle  in  his  eye. 

Mr.  MAJlister  did  not  seem  to  have  heard  the  obser¬ 
vation  ;  nevertheless  he  rapidly  changed  the  conversation, 
and,  plunging  deep  into  the  politics  of  Europe,  appeared 
immensely  interested  in  the  intentions  of  the  Emperor 
Napoleon  towards  the  Court  of  Home.  Jimmy  was  in 
high  spirits  that  sharp  morning,  influenced  not  a  little  by 
the  knowledge  that  his  excellent  wife  was  then  enjoying 
c  a  comfortable  snooze  in  her  best  feather  bed  ’  at  the  safe 
distance  of  half  a  dozen  miles  from  where  her  husband 
stood,  the  centre  of  an  admiring  circle.  It  wTas  not  the 
right  occasion  for  airing  a  grievance  ;  and,  indeed,  his  pet 
grievance — the  want  of  the  resident  clergyman — had  been 
so  completely  demolished  by  the  assurance  publicly  given 
by  the  Bishop,  that  it  was  hopelessly  past  use.  The  tem¬ 
porary  delay  in  establishing  the  second  school  in  the 
settlement  afforded  him  both  a  theme  and  a  consolation  ; 
but  even  of  this  text  for  an  occasional  harangue  he  was 
soon  to  be  deprived.  Jimmy  may  now  be  in  search  of  a 
grievance  ;  and,  when  found,  it  is  to  be  hoped  it  may  not 
be  a  very  serious  one — barely  sufficient  to  afford  a  gentle 
provocation  to  amicable  discussion. 

To  my  humble  self,  I  must  gratefully  admit,  Mr.  MAllis¬ 
ter  did  the  honours  of  the  settlement  in  a  manner  at  once 
affable  and  patronising. 

When  we  took  our  departure,  which  wras  not  achieved 
without  vigorous  and  repeated  liand-shakings,  and  prayers 
and  blessings  unnumbered,  we  were  accompanied  a  couple 
of  miles  of  the  road  by  the  Besident  Magistrate  of  the 
settlement,  who  also  combined  in  his  own  person  the  addi- 


OTHER  IRISH  SETTLEMENTS. 


75 


tional  dignities  of  Captain  of  Militia  and  Councillor  of  the 
Parish.  Mr.  Cummins  was  himself  one  of  the  settlers,  and 
he  recounted  with  modest  pride  the  story  of  his  early 
efforts  and  his  daily  increasing  prosperity. 

On  our  return  to  St.  John  we  met  the  Post-Master- 
General — a  Scotchman — who  had  recently  paid  an  official 
visit  to  the  settlement ;  and  he  was  loud  in  the  expression 
of  his  astonishment  at  the  progress  which  the  people  had 
made  in  so  short  a  time,  and  at  the  unmistakable  evidences 
of  comfort  he  beheld  in  every  direction. 

The  settlement  of  Johnviile  is  but  one  of  four  which  Dr. 
Sweeny  established  within  a  recent  time.  He  has  thus 
succeeded  in  establishing,  as  settlers,  between  700  and  800 
families,  or,  at  an  average  of  five  persons  to  each  family, 
between  3,500  and  4,000  individuals.  The  description 
given  of  Johnviile  would  generally  apply  to  the  other  set¬ 
tlements  ;  the  difference,  whatever  it  might  be,  arising 
more  from  the  quality  of  the  land  than  any  other  cause. 


76 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  IY. 


Irish  who  settle  on  the  Land — Their  Success — Their  Progress  in 
St.  John — Three  Irishmen — A  Small  Beginning — Testimony  of  a 
Belfast  Independent — Position  of  Irish  Catholics — The  Church 
in  New  Brunswick — A  Sweet  Bit— Missionary  Zeal — Catholicity 
in  St.  John — Past  and  Present. 

1HERE  are  large  districts  in  New  Brunswick  almost 


exclusively  occupied  by  Irish  Catholics,  who  have  been 
from  twenty  to  forty  years  in  the  province.  Many  and 
anxious  were  the  enquiries  which  I  made  in  every  quarter, 
from  persons  in  various  conditions  of  life,  and  holding 
opposite  opinions  on  most  public  questions  ;  and  it  is  but 
simple  justice  to  the  representatives  of  the  Irish  race  in 
that  portion  of  the  American  continent  to  state,  that  the 
universal  testimony  was  in  favour  of  their  thrift,  industry, 
energy,  and  honesty.  This  was  the  testimony,  not  merely 
of  members  of  their  own  church,  who  might  naturally  be 
inclined  to  exaggerate  the  merits,  or  to  deal  leniently  with 
the  demerits,  of  those  of  their  own  faith  and  country  ;  it 
was  the  testimony  of  Scotch  Presbyterians,  English  Pro¬ 
testants,  and  the  aristocratic  descendants  of  the  original 
colonists.  I  have  been  repeatedly  assured  that  the  Irish 
were  amongst  the  best  settlers  in  the  province  ;  and  were 
I,  from  a  feeling  of  false  delicacy,  to  refrain  from  repealing 
this  creditable  judgment  in  their  favour,  I  should  be  doing 
them  a  grievous  wrong,  and  denying  them  a  merit  freely 
accorded  to  them  by  those  who,  however  individually  just 
and  fair-minded,  entertain  no  special  love  either  for  their 
country  or  their  creed. 

As  a  rule,  then,  admitting  of  rare  exceptions,  the  Irish 
who  settle  on  the  land ,  and  devote  themselves  to  its  cul¬ 
tivation,  do  well,  realise  property,  accumulate  money, 


TIIEIR  PROGRESS  IN  ST.  JOHN. 


77 


surroiml  themselves  with  solid  comforts,  and  bring  up 
their  families  respectably.  Hundreds  of  cases  could  be 
mentioned  of  Irishmen,  originally  of  the  very  humblest 
condition,  who,  when  they  came  out  first,  worked  as  farm- 
labourers  for  others,  and  now  occupy,  as  owners,  ihe 
very  properly  on  which  they  toiled  for  their  daily  bread. 
On  the  one  hand,  there  was  waste  and  extravagance ;  on 
the  other,  thrift  and  industry ;  with  the  natural  result, 
that  the  latter  took  the  place  which  the  former  could  not 
hold. 

There  are  millions  of  acres  yet  unoccupied,  which  have 
never  been  visited  save  by  the  lumberman  and  his  assist¬ 
ants  ;  and  of  this  land  any  quantity  may  be  had  from  the 
State  on  easy  terms.  Thus,  for  instance,  for  a  sum  of 
GO?.,  a  property  consisting  of  500  acres  may  be  purchased 
in  New  Brunswick — may  be  held  as  long  as  grass  grows 
and  water  runs.  But,  altogether  independent  of  the  land 
that  may  be  had  from  the  State,  either  by  purchase  or 
under  the  provisions  of  the  Labour  Act,  there  are  cultivated 
farms  which,  like  all  other  descriptions  of  property,  are 
constantly  in  the  market ;  and  the  thrifty  man — the  sober 
and  prudent  man — who  watches  the  opportunity  of  pur¬ 
chasing  to  advantage,  may  do  so  at  almost  any  time. 

The  Irish,  Protestants  and  Catholics,  hold  a  most  im¬ 
portant  position  in  St.  John,  and  may  be  said  to  own  fully 
half  the  property  and  wealth  of  that  bustling  active  city. 
Of  this  property  and  wealth,  the  Catholics,  who,  with 
scarce  an  exception,  are  Irish,  possess  a  considerable  share. 
And  what  they  possess  they  realised  for  themselves.  The 
majority  of  those  who  are  now  respected  for  the  position 
they  occupy,  and  which  position  is  enhanced  by  their 
character  for  honour  and  integrity,  came  out  poor — in 
many  instances  absolutely  penniless ;  but  they  stripped  to 
the  work  before  them,  and  climbed,  with  steady  energy, 
from  the  lowest  rung  of  the  social  ladder  to  wealth  and 
independence.  Bare  indeed  is  the  instance  of  a  young 


78 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


man  having  come  out  with  a  tolerably  well-filled  purse. 
‘Iliad  not  a  pound  in  the  world  when  I  landed  here/  is 
the  boast  of  nine  out  of  ten  who  owe  their  present  proud 
position  to  their  own  unaided  exertions.  And  when  de¬ 
scribing  how  several  of  the  wealthiest  of  the  modern  emi¬ 
grants  succeeded  in  life,  some  one  who  knew  the  city  well 
would  say :  *  Such  a  man  first  worked  as  a  labourer ;  I 
‘  remember  this  man  in  a  sawmill ;  that  man  commenced 
‘  as  a  lumberman ;  one  was  a  gardener,  another  a  porter, 
‘  another  a  pedlar  :  and  now  such  a  man  is  worth  2,000/. ; 
‘such  a  man,  5,000/.;  such  a  man,  10,000/. ;  such  a  man, 
‘  20,000/. ;  such  a  man,  50,000/. :  but,  sir,  all  made  by 
‘  honesty,  energy  and  good  conduct.’  This  is  literally  the 
history — the  noble  history — of  many  a  man  in  St.  John, 
who  is  a  credit  to  the  country  of  his  adoption,  and  an 
honour  to  the  land  of  his  nativity.  Even  those  who 
enjoyed  the  advantage  of  a. good  education  had,  when  they 
started,  little  more  of  worldly  goods  than  those  whose 
only  possessions  were  their  strength,  their  honesty,  their 
strength  or  their  skill ;  and  in  the  hard  struggle  upwards, 
that  incalculable  advantage  necessarily  told  in  their  favour. 
But  in  all  cases,  education  or  no  education,  whether  the 
young  adventurer  brought  with  him  the  well-won  honours 
of  Old  Trinity,  or  the  learning  picked  up  in  a  village 
school,  steadiness,  sobriety,  and  good  conduct  were  essen¬ 
tial  to  success. 

The  possession  of  ‘  a  little  money  ’  is  very  useful  to  arny 
man  who  emigrates  to  a  new  country,  especially  when  he 
has  a  family  to  provide  for.  But  it  has  been  confidently 
asserted,  by  experienced  observers  of  the  early  struggles 
and  successful  career  of  their  countrymen,  that  the  most 
fortunate  men  came  out  ‘without  a  pound  in  their  pocket,’ 
or,  as  they  phrased  it,  without  ‘  anything  worth  speaking  of.’ 
This  may  be  accounted  for  by  the  necessity  which  compels 
a  man  without  money,  in  a  strange  place,  to  set  to  work 
at  once  and  at  anything  that  offers ;  whereas  the  man  with 


A  SMALL  BEGINNING. 


75 

a  small  capital  is  perhaps  inclined  to  look  about  him  too 
long,  expecting,  like  Mr.  Micaubcr,  that  ‘something  will 
turn  up,’  and  may  thus  lose  the  opportunity,  or  fritter  away 
the  energy  essential  to  success.  I  was  much  struck  with 
the  histories  of  three  Irishmen  whom  I  met  while  in  New 
Brunswick.  One  was  a  sturdy  Independent,  from  the 
neighbourhood  of  Belfast  ;  the  others  were  Catholics—  one 
from  ‘  Sweet  Glanmire,’  near  the  city  of  Cork,  the  other 
from  the  county  Fermanagh. 

The  Cork  man’s  first  enquiry  was,  ‘Why,  then,  how’s 
Beamish  and  Crawford  ?*• — are  they  alive  at  all  ?  ’ 

Having  satisfied  my  cheery  acquaintance  on  that  head, 
by  assuring  him  that  Beamish  and  Crawford  were  as  well 
as  he  could  wish  them  to  be,  I  suggested  a  leading  ques¬ 
tion — 

m 

‘I  suppose,  Mr.  M‘Carthy,  you  had  to  fight  your  way, 
like  the  rest  of  our  countrymen  ?  ’ 

‘  Faith,  and  that  I  had,  sir,  and  no  mistake.  All  I 
owned  in  the  world,  when  I  got  as  far  as  Frederickton, 
was  twenty-five  cents,  and  sure  enough  that  same  was  not 
left  long  in  my  pocket,  as  I’ll  tell  you — and  it  makes  me 
laugh  now  when  I’m  telling  it,  though  it  was  far  from  a 
laughing  matter  'then.  I  took  the  twenty-five  cents  out 
of  my  pocket,  and  I  put  them  in  my  hand,  and  I  looked 
at  them  and  looked  at  them,  and  I  thought  to  myself  they 
were  mighty  little  for  a  man  to  begin  the  world  with  ;  but 
faith,  sir,  there  was  no  help  for  it,  and  I  had  my  health 
and  strength,  and  all  I  wanted  was  work  to  do,  for  I  was 
equal  for  it.  Well,  sir,  small  as  the  twenty-five  cents  looked 
in  my  hand,  they  looked  smaller  soon.  I  felt  myself  very 
dry  entirely,  and  I  wanted  a  drop  of  tea  bad  ;  so  I  went  into 
a  house,  and  said  to  a  woman  I  met  there,  “  Ma’am,  I’ll  feel 
much  obliged  for  a  cup  of  tea,  if  you’d  be  pleased  fo  give 
it  to  me.”  “  Certainly,  young  man,”  says  she,  for  she  was 


*  One  of  the  most  eminent  and  respected  brewing  firms  in  Ireland. 


80 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


civil-spoken  enough,  and  I  was  quite  a  young  fellow  in 
them  days;  “certainly,”  says  she,  “you  must  have  a  cup 
of  tea,  young  man  ;  but  you  must  pay  me  twelve  cents  for 
it.”  “Beggars  can’t  be  choosers,”  says  I  to  myself,  “so 
here  goes  for  the  tea.”  That  cup  of  tea  made  a  large  hole 
in  my  twenty-five  cents,  and  the  bed  and  the  breakfast 
next  morning  put  the  finish  to  my  capital.  But,  sir,  as 
the  Lord  would  have  it,  I  got  a  lucky  job  from  a  good 
gentleman  that  same  day  ;  and  when  he  saw  that  I  was 
steady,  and  didn’t  want  to  spare  myself,  he  gave  me  more 
to  do.  From  that  day  to  this  I’ve  never  been  idle,  and 
always  steady,  and  keeping  away  from  the  drink,  unless  a 
little  in  reason,  once  in  a  way  ;  and  now,  glory  be  to  God 
for  it !  I  have  enough  for  myself  and  my  family,  and  I’m 
doing  a  good  business,  and  have  something  put  by.  But, 
sir,  wasn’t  it  a  small  beginning?  Faith,  I  can’t  help 
laughing  when  I  think  of  the  twenty-five  cents,  and  the 
big  hole  that  cup  of  tea  made  in  it.’ 

The  Fermanagh  man  was  then  living  upon  his  income, 
which  was  still  considerable,  though  he  had  educated  and 
provided  for  a  large  family.  It  was  his  boast  that  ‘  all  he 
had  in  the  world  when  he  landed  from  Ireland  was  a 
dollar  and  a  shilling.’  Industry,  perseverance,  and  good 
conduct  did  the  rest. 

I  shall  allow  the  Belfast  Independent  to  speak  in  his 
own  words,  his  testimony  in  favour  of  his  countrymen 
being  too  valuable  to  be  omitted.  He  is — or  was  in 
October,  1866 — a  member  of  the  Government,  though 
without  a  portfolio,  his  important  private  affairs  requiring 
his  principal  attention. 

‘  I  had  to  work  my  way  up,  with  no  one  to  help  me  but 
myself.  I  literally  had  nothing  when  I  began — nothing 
in  the  -shape  of  money  or  friends  ;  but  I  got  on  from  one 
thing  to  another,  and  I  am  now’,  thank  God,  all  right  and 
getting  along.  I  think  it  does  a  man  good  to  be  obliged 
to  "work  his  own  way  in  life  ;  I  know  it  did  me  good,  and 


TESTIMONY  OF  A  BELFAST  INDEPENDENT. 


81 


I  am  liappier  than  if  my  father  or  grandfather  had  done 
everything  for  me,  and  I  nothing  for  myself  but  to  eat 
and  drink  what  they  left  me.  My  dear  sir,  some  of  our 
best  men  hadn’t  a  cent  when  they  started  ;  and  what  are 
they  now?  Faith,  sir,  they  are  better  off  than  if  they’d 
been  left  fortunes — for  in  that  case  they  might  be  only 
anxious  to  spend  them.  Why,  when  I  was  first  elected  to 
our  Parliament,  there  were  seven  of  us  who  began  as  poor 
boys — yes,  sir,  poor  boys  ;  and  three  of  them  were  Irish, 
like  myself.’ 

*  Irish,’  I  repeated. 

‘Yes,  sir,  Irish  ;  and  I  tell  you  what,  sir,  it’s  not  be¬ 
cause  I  am  an  Irishman  myself  that  I  say  it,  but  still  I 
do  say  it — that  our  people  get  along  in  every  way  as  well 
as  any  others.  They  are  as  smart,  and  as  industrious — 
yes,  and  as  saving  ;  and  they  get  property  too  as  well  as 
the  rest — English,  Scotch,  or  ‘Bluenoses.’  All  they  want 
is  just  to  keep  away  from  the  liquor — not,  sir,  that  others 
don’t  drink  as  much,  and  perhaps  more,  if  the  entire  truth 
was  told,  than  they  do  ;  but  when  the  Englishman  will  be 
stupid,  or  the  Scotchman  will  hide  himself  in  a  corner,  the 
Irishman  will  go  out  in  the  street,  and  make  a  noise,  anti 
call  attention  to  himself — that’s  just  the  difference.  But. 
sir,  when  the  Irishman  is  steady  and  sober,  he  has  no 
superior  ;  and  I  don’t  say  this  because  I  happen  to  be  an 
Irishman,  but  because  I  see  it  every  day  of  my  life.  Why 
look  at  them  when  they  get  on  the  land ;  see  how  com¬ 
fortable  they  are,  and  what  stock  they  have !  I  wish 
you’d  come  to  the  Irish  settlement  near  me,  in  St. 
Stephen’s,  Charlotte  County ;  there  is  not  a  poor  man 
among  them  all — yet  they  all  came  out  poor — as  poor  as 
mice — without  a  cent  in  the  world.  Yes,  sir,  and  though 
they  are  not  of  my  church,  I  say  there  isn’t  a  more  moral 
or  virtuous  people  in  the  world, — that  I  say  without  fear 
of  contradiction.’ 

‘  You  must  know  your  countrymen  well,’  I  suggested. 


82 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


‘That  I  ought.  I  am  in  this  country  nearly  forty 
years,  and  I  saw  the  first  of  their  coming  here.  They 
have  gone  on  wonderfully,  surely — all  must  admit  that. 
And  there  isn’t  anything  like  the  drink  there  was  among 
them.  I  have  expe  rience  of  that  in  my  own  business.  I 
am  perhaps  as  largely  in  tho  lumber  business  as  any  man 
in  the  Province,  and  I  employ  a  great  many  men.  Some 
of  it  is  very  nice  work,  I  assure  you ;  and  for  skill  and 
judgment,  when  once  he  gets  to  know  his  business,  I  say 
I  prefer  the  Irishman.  And,  sir,  there  isn’t  that  danger 
that  ever  was  that  will  frighten  him ;  I’ve  seen  him  as 
steady  as  a  rock  in  the  midst  of  the  rapids.  As  to  the 
drink,  when  a  party  went  into  the  woods  formerly,  they 
could  do  nothing  without  the  whiskey,  and  the  keg  of 
spirits  was  as  necessary  to  the  lumberman  as  the  barrel  of 
flour  or  meat,  or  the  store  of  groceries ;  but  lately  it  is 
not  thought  of — and  so  much  the  better ;  people  get  along 
as  well  and  better  without  it,  and  they  save  their  money 
into  the  bargain.  And  let  the  sober  Irishman  alone  for 
saving! — faith  he  scarcely  has  his  equal  for  that  in  this 
Province.’ 

I  remarked  that  it  was  pleasant  to  hear  so  good  an 
account  of  one’s  countrymen,  especially  as  there  were 
too  many  in  the  world  not  inclined  to  think  favourably 
of  them.  s 

‘Well,  that  is  true;  there  are  too  many  who  bother 
themselves  about  people’s  religion,  and  who  won’t  give 
Catholics  a  good  word ;  but,  for  my  part,  I  live  in  the 
midst  of  them,  and  I  find  they  are  in  every  way  equal  to 
any  others  that  you  can  mention.  Then  as  for  the  Priest, 
why  I  always  see  him  going  among  his  flock,  settling 
differences  when  they  happen,  and  taking  the  greatest 
care  of  the  children.  I  havn’t  a  better  or  faster  friend 

than  Father - ,  though  I  am  not  of  his  church.  But 

for  the  Irish,  I  know  them  well,  and  what  I  say  of  them 
is  before  my  eyes  every  day.’ 


POSITION  OF  IRISH  CATHOLICS. 


8is 

That  the  Irish  Catholic  has  had  the  hardest  battle  to 
fight,  not  only  in  New  Brunswick,  or  the  other  British 
Provinces,  but  throughout  the  States,  must  be  obvious  to 
any  one  who  considers  the  circumstances  under  which  he 
left  his  own  country,  and  the  prejudices,  national  and 
religious,  which  beset  his  path  in  the  country  of  his 
adoption.  An  Irishman  and  a  Catholic,  poor,  and  perhaps 
illiterate — the  latter  the  result  of  vicious  laws  rather  than 
of  any  indifference  on  liis  part  to  learning — he  had  little  in 
his  favour,  and  almost  everything  against  him.  Many  of 
the  older  settlers  were  the  descendants  of  the  Puritans 
of  New  England,  and  the  sectarian  prejudices  of  their 
fathers  still  survived  in  the  breasts  of  their  children. 
Indeed  it  would  be  difficult  to  decide  whether  the  feeling 
against  the  Irish  Catholics  was  stronger  when  they  were 
few  in  number,  and  their  strength  was  altogether  insig¬ 
nificant,  or  when  they  grew  into  an  important  section  of 
the  population,  and  their  influence  became  perceptible  in 
the  politics  as  in  the  trade  and  commerce  of  the  Province. 
The  prejudice  which  they  had  to  encounter  was  neither 
latent  nor  slumbering — it  was  open  and  active  ;  it  met  the 
Catholic  Irishman  in  every  rank  of  life  and  in  every  branch 
of  industry,  and  nothing  short  of  the  indomitable  energy 
which,  throughout  the  American  continent,  the  race  have 
shown  themselves  to  possess,  could  have  raised  so  large 
a  number  of  them  in  New  Brunswick  above  the  rudest 
employment  or  the  humblest  fortune.  And  yet,  while 
Labour,  rude  or  skilled,  is  the  lot  of  the  majority  of  the 
Irish  in  St.  John,  and  throughout  the  province  generally, 
a  considerable  proportion  are  to  be  found  in  every  depart¬ 
ment  of  business,  and  enjoy,  as  merchants,  traders,  and 
manufacturers,  the  highest  position  which  character  and 
wealth  can  secure  to  their  possessor.  And  not  only  is  it 
true  that  the  mercantile  and  trading  class  among  the  Irish 
Catholics  arc  equal  in  enterprise,  and  even  ‘  go-alicad- 
isliness.’  to  the  most  advanced  of  those  who  have  caught 


84 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


the  right  spirit  from  tlieir  neighbours  of  the  States,  but 
there  is  a  large  amount  of  property  held  by  the  working 
classes.  And  this  applies  with  equal  accuracy  to  Frederick- 
ton,  Woodstock,  Chatham,  Cliediac, — wherever  the  Irish 
have  established  themselves  in  numbers,  or  had  a  fair 
opening  for  the  exercise  of  industry,  intelligence,  and 
thrift.  The  Irish  Protestant  had  fewer  difficulties  to 
encounter  than  his  Catholic  countrymen,  and  he  is 
generally  to  be  found  in  flourishing  circumstances.  Simi¬ 
larity  of  religion  with  that  of  the  wealthier  portion  of  the 
mass  of  the  population  was  always  of  great  assistance  to 
the  Protestant  emigrant  to  America. 

The  history  of  the  Catholic  Church  throughout  America 
is  also  the  history  of  the  Irish  race  in  the  New  World. 
This  is  as  true  of  the  British  Provinces,  with  the  exception 
of  Lower  Canada,  as  of  the  United  States.  From  this 
point  of  view  it  may  prove  interesting  to  describe  briefly 
the  growth  and  progress  of  the  Church  in  New  Bruns¬ 
wick. 

It  is  little  more  than  fifty  years  since  a  Kilkenny  colle¬ 
gian  was  ordained  in  Quebec  by  the  Bishop  of  that  city, 
whose  spiritual  jurisdiction  then  extended  over  New  Bruns¬ 
wick  and  other  maritime  provinces  of  North  America. 
Father  Bollard — for  that  was  the  young  priest’s  name — - 
was  sent  to  Cape  Breton  as  a  missionary  among  the 
Indians,  who,  having  been  originally  converted  by  the 
Jesuits,  those  faithful  and  fearless  soldiers  of  the  Cross, 
adhered  with  remarkable  fidelity  to  the  religion  taught 
them  by  the  £  black  gowns.’  While  with  this  simple  flock 
the  young  Irish  missionary  led  a  life  of  the  severest  hard¬ 
ship.  Living  with  them  in  their  camps,  he  shared  with 
them  all  the  privations  to  which  they  were  peculiarly  ex¬ 
posed.  Many  years  after,  when  Bishop  of  Frederickton. 
the  venerable  priest  would  take  delight  in  narrating  anec¬ 
dotes  of  liis  mission  among  the  ‘red  skins.’ 

Father  Bollard  was  summoned  on  one  occasion  to  visit 


A  SWEET  BIT- -A  BRAVE  PRIEST. 


85 


an  Indian  wlio  lay  at  the  point  of  death  far  away  in  the 
forest — a  distance  of  twenty-seven  miles.  It  was  mid-win¬ 
ter,  and  the  ground  was  everywhere  covered  with  deep 
snow.  Accompanied  by  his  guide,  armed  with  a  stout  staff, 
and  his  feet  protected  by  snow  shoes,  the  priest  was  soon 
on  his  way.  Before  starting  he  shared  his  breakfast  with 
his  companion,  who,  with  commendable  forethought,  but 
much  to  the  disgust  of  his  reverend  friend,  coolly  took 
from  the  table  the  remnant  of  the  meat,  rolled  it  in  a  rag 
of  most  uninviting  appearance,  and  placed  it  in  his  pouch, 
which  he  hid  away  in  his  breast.  When  the  travellers  had 
accomplished  ten  miles  of  their  arduous  journey,  they  sat 
down  on  a  fallen  tree  to  rest.  Here  the  Indian  drew 
forth  his  treasure  from  its  hiding-place,  unrolled  the  un¬ 
pleasant-looking  rag  with  much  solemnity,  and,  cutting 
off  a  portion  of  the  meat,  politely  handed  it  to  the  mis¬ 
sionary,  saying,  ‘  Father,  you  take  bit  of  this  ?  *  The 
young  priest  shuddered  at  the  proffered  dainty,  but  quiet¬ 
ly  declined  the  courteous  invitation,  on  the  plea  of  not 
being  hungry.  c  Then  me  eat  it,  Father,’  said  the  Indian, 
who  devoured  the  morsel  with  every  appearance  of  the  most 
intense  relish.  At  the  end  of  five  miles  more  of  weary  trudg¬ 
ing  through  the  snow,  the  pair  again  rested,  the  priest  feel¬ 
ing  faint  as  well  as  tired.  Again  the  Indian  drew  forth  his 
treasure,  which  the  priest  now  viewed  with  somewhat 
different  feelings  to  what  he  had  beheld  it  on  previous 
occasions,  and  not  with  the  same  involuntary  rising  of  the 
gorge.  Cutting  off  a  liberal  portion,  the  Bed  Skin,  with 
an  insinuating  manner,  and  in  the  softest  voice,  said, 

*  Father,  may  be  you  take  some  now  f  ’  4  Yes,  my  child,  I 

think  I  will,’  replied  the  priest.  £  And,  my  dear  sir,’  said 
the  Bishop  of  Frederickton,  ‘  I  can  assure  you  I  never  ate 
anything  sweeter  in  all  my  life.’ 

While  still  among  the  Indians  of  Cape  Breton,  Father 
Bollard  had  to  remain  for  the  night  in  a  strange  wigwam, 
and  there  being  no  kind  of  bed  in  the  miserable  dwelling, 


8G 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


a  couch  formed  of  fresh  green  boughs,  torn  from  a  neigh¬ 
bouring  tree,  was  constructed  for  his  use.  On  this  he  lay 
down  to  rest,  but  he  was  awakened  in  the  middle  of  the 
night  by  excruciating  pains  in  his  back  and  shoulders,  and 
in  the  morning  he  was  throwing  up  blood.  Compelled  to 
return  to  Montreal,  where  he  could  obtain  medical  assist¬ 
ance,  he  was  for  two  years  an  invalid,  half  the  time  being 
spent  in  the  hospital.  Restored  at  length  to  health — so 
fervently  prayed  for  by  the  zealous  missionary — he  was 
sent  to  Miramichi,  in  New  Brunswick,  this  new  field  of  his 
labours  extending  over  an  immense  tract  of  uninhabited 
country,  his  flock  consisting  of  tribes  of  Indians,  and  a 
few  scattered  French,  Scotch,  and  Irish.  When  on  sick 
or  missionary  duty,  he  travelled  along  the  river  and 
its  tributaries  in  a  canoe,  always  accompanied  by  an  In¬ 
dian  ;  and  many  a  time,  when  neither  wigwam  nor  log- 
hut  was  within  possible  reach,  the  priest  and  his  faithful 
guide  had  to  pass  the  night  on  the  bare  ground,  under  the 
welcome  shelter  of  their  upturned  canoe.  From  Mira¬ 
michi  Father  Dollard  was  transferred  to  Frederickton,  the 
capital  of  New  Brunswick.  While  here  the  smallpox,  that 
awful  scourge  of  the  uncivilised  races  of  man,  made  its 
dreaded  appearance  among  the  neighbouring  Indians,  in 
whose  camps  it  committed  deplorable  ravages.  It  was 
at  such  a  moment  that  the  Irish  priest  displayed  the 
courage  and  self-devotion  which  formed  so  noble  a  feature 
in  his  character.  When  the  timid  savages  fled  in  horror 
from  the  mysterious  enemy  that  was  hourly  striking  down 
their  stoutest  braves,  and  making  desolate  their  wigwams, 
Father  Dollard  knelt  by  the  rude  couch  of  the  sufferer, 
nursed  him,  and  prayed  with  him,  and  consoled  him  ;  and 
when  death  released  the  soul  of  the  poor  Indian  from  its 
swollen  and  ghastly  tenement  of  clay,  the  dauntless  priest 
took  that  festering  body  in  his  arms  or  on  his  back,  and 
with  his  own  hands  placed  it  in  the  grave  which  he  had  pre¬ 
viously  dug  for  its  reception.  Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that 


MISSIONARY  ZEAL. 


87 


the  Church  should  have  made  the  progress  it  has  done, 
when  such  was  the  spirit  of  early  missionaries  ? 

Father  Dollard  remained  at  Frederickton  until  1842, 
when  he  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  New  Brunswick.  At 
the  time  he  commenced  his  mission  there  were  not  more 
than  four  or  five  priests  in  the  entire  province. 

Father  Gagnon,  a  French  Canadian,  was  one  of  these 
spiritual  pioneers,  and  his  duty  took  him  along  that  portion 
of  the  Northern  shore  of  which  Shediac  may  be  described 
as  the  centre.  And  rough  times  they  were  with  the 
missionary,  who  had  to  encounter  the  wild  blast  and  the 
perilous  wave,  as  he  skirted  the  dangerous  shore  in  an  open 
boat,  which  he  was  himself  often  obliged  to  row.  Not 
unfrequently  did  he  experience  the  inconvenience  of  being- 
wrecked  ;  and  more  than  once  had  the  tall  gaunt  priest  to 
wade  to  land,  some  cherished  article  of  property  or  provi¬ 
sion  held  high  above  the  raging  waters,  to  save  it  from  de¬ 
struction.  Depending  a  good  deal  on  this  uncertain  means 
of  communication,  Father  Gagnon  paid  irregular  visits  to 
the  widelv  scattered  settlements  of  his  extensive  mission. 

%j 

In  the  same  district  in  which  the  Canadian  priest  thus  pur¬ 
sued  his  sacred  calling,  there  were  in  18G8  six  large  and 
populous  parishes,  with  good  churches  and  resident  clergy¬ 
men. 

We  now  turn  to  St.  John,  the  centre  of  a  great  and 
growing  diocese.  There  are  men  still  living — I  liavo 
spoken  with  some  of  them — who  remember  the  time  when 
they  could  name  every  Catholic  then  in  that-  city.  One  of 
these,  a  Catholic  magistrate,  informed  me  that  when  he 
arrived  from  Ireland,  in  the  year  1818,  there  was  but  £a 
mere  handful  ’  of  the  faithful  in  the  town  ;  and  he  well 
remembered  how  c  one  Andy  Sullivan,  a  tailor  from 
Bandon,’  had  to  read  prayers  for  them  in  the  church  of 
St.  Malachy — a  little  timber  structure,  which  the  poor  con¬ 
gregation  were  years  trying  to  cover  in  from  the  rain  and 
the  wind,  and  had  no  means  of  warming  for  fourteen  bitter 


88 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


winters,  until  tlieir  numbers  and  tlieir  resources  were  in¬ 
creased.  There  was  another  reader  besides  the  worthy 
tailor  from  Bandon — ‘  one  Flanagan,  a  college-bred  man  ;* 
and  the  visits  of  a  priest  being  then  of  only  occasional 
occurrence,  the  congregation  wrere  glad  of  the  services  of 
one  who  could  read  with  befitting  impressiveness  the  Epis¬ 
tle  and  Gospel  of  the  day,  such  prayers  as  were  suitable  to 
the  occasion,  wTith  perhaps  a  chapter  from  the  work  of  some 
pious  divine,  or  a  sermon  from  one  of  the  lights  of  the 
Church.  From  a  dozen,  or  at  most  twenty  Catholic  fami¬ 
nes,  the  number  gradually  increased,  though  to  a  still 
scanty  congregation  and  feeble  community;  but  from  the 
year  1820  the  tide  of  emigration  commenced  to  flow  in, 
slowly  at  first,  eventually  with  greater  strength  and  a  fuller 
current,  until,  in  a  few  years  after,  Catholics  began  to  feel 
themselves  to  be  an  important  portion  of  the  population. 
Slowly,  laboriously,  and  amidst  much  difficulty  and  marked 
discouragement,  the  Irish  Catholics  grew  year  by  year  into 
a  position  both  prominent  and  influential.  The  early  Ca¬ 
tholic  settlers  carried  with  them  the  impress  of  their  civil 
and  religious  degradation  ;  and  even  for  a  considerable 
time  after  the  passing  of  the  Emancipation  Act  the  new¬ 
comers  were  regarded  with  aversion  and  mistrust  by  the 
old  colonists,  who  likewise,  and  not  unnaturally,  looked 
upon  them  as  interlopers  and  intruders.  But,  manfully 
and  steadily,  the  Irish  Catholics  won  their  way,  though  not 
without  many  a  hard  fight  and  many  a  keenly-felt  morti¬ 
fication,  to  political  influence  and  social  consideration. 
Now  they  kneel  beneath  the  lofty  roof  of  their  magnificent 
cathedral,  200  feet  in  length,  of  solid  stone,  and  built  at 
a  cost  of  .£30,000  ;  and  among  them,  white-haired  and 
venerable,  a  few  of  those  who,  in  the  wind-scourged  shanty 
of  ‘the  church  of  St.  Malaehy’ — for  which  a  stove  could 
not  be  procured  for  fourteen  long  North  American  winters 
— listened  with  del  out  attention  to  the  voice  of  Andy  Sul¬ 
livan,  the  tailor  from  Bandon,  and  to  the  more  skilful 


CATHOLICITY  PAST  AND  PRESENT. 


89 


elocution  of  ‘  one  Flanagan,  tlie  college-bred  man.’  Forty 
years  since,  an  ordinary  room  would  have  afforded  sufficient 
accommodation  to  the  Catholic  worshippers  of  that  day  : 
now  congregations  of  2,000  or  3,000  pour  out  on  Sundays 
and  holidays  through  the  sculptured  portals  of  the  Church 
of  the  Immaculate  Conception.  On  All  Saints’  Day  I  be¬ 
held  such  a  congregation  issuing  from  an  early  Mass,  fill¬ 
ing  the  street  in  front  of  the  splendid  building  ;  and  from 
the  appearance  of  the  thousands  of  well-dressed,  respect¬ 
able-looking  people,  who  passed  before  me,  I  could  appre¬ 
ciate  not  only  the  material  progress  of  the  Irish  in  St.  John, 
but  the  marvellous  development  of  the  Catholic  Church  in 
that  city. 

On  a  plot  of  land,  four  acres  in  extent,  and  right  in  the 
heart  of  the  town,  are  clustered  the  Cathedral,  the  Palace 
cf  the  Bishop — of  cut  stone,  and  one  of  the  finest  structures 
of  the  kind  in  the  British  Provinces,  indeed  in  America — 
the  Convent  of  Charity,  the  Convent  of  the  Sacred  Heart, 
an  Asylum  for  Orphans,  and  a  Classical  and  Commercial 
Academy  under  the  patronage  of  the  Bishop.  There  are 
other  churches,  convents,  and  schools  in  the  city,  including 
the  admirable  schools  of  the  Christian  Brothers. 

When  the  present  estimable  prelate  first  came  on  the 
mission  in  1844,  he  had  to  travel  distances  of  from  sixty 
to  eighty  miles  to  attend  c  sick  calls,’  and  was  frequently 
absent  for  more  than  six  wTeeks  at  a  time,  travelling  from 
mission  to  mission,  saying  Mass  in  log  huts,  and  adminis¬ 
tering  the  sacrament  to  flocks  scattered  throughout  a  wide 
and  thinly-populated  district.  There  are  now  several  resi¬ 
dent  clergymen  in  that  district — outside  St.  John  ;  and 
instead  of  the  rude  log  hut  of  the  past,  there  are  now 
sixteen  good  churches,  with  large  congregations.  And  all 
this  change  in  the  comparatively  short  space  of  two-and- 
twenty  years. 

There  are  two  dioceses  in  the  same  province  in  which, 
fifty  years  since,  there  were  but  four  missionaries.  That 


90 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


of  Chatham  is  presided  over  by  Dr.  Rogers,  that  of  St. 
John  by  Dr.  Sweeny.  In  the  two  dioceses  there  were  in 
1S66'  ninety  churches  and  forty-five  priests  ;  and  as  rapidly 
as  priests  can  be  ordained,  or  obtained  from  the  colleges 
in  Ireland,  there  are  missions  awaiting  their  labours. 
AVhen  Dr.  Sweeny  was  consecrated,  in  18G0,  he  had  but 
nineteen  priests  in  his  diocese,  whereas  in  1866  the 
number  had  increased  to  thirty,  and  two  young  candidates 
for  the  ministry  were  to  be  ordained  before  the  spring  of 
18G7. 

‘  Bishop,  when  we  were  boys,  and  when  the  old  church 
of  St.  Malachy  took  so  long  in  building,  and  when  it  was 
so  many  years  before  it  could  be  closed  in,  little  did  the 
Catholics  of  that  day  think  of  building  cathedrals  and 
palaces  for  their  bishops,  and  schools  and  convents.’  This 
was  the  remark  made  in  1866  by  an  Episcopalian  clergy¬ 
man  to  Dr.  Sweeny,  as  they  stood  near  the  group  of 
buildings  that  present  the  most  eloquent  evidences  of  the 
numerical  strength,  material  progress,  and  devoted  zeal  of 
the  Irish  Catholics  of  St.  John*  Little  did  those  who  lis¬ 
tened  to  the  Sunday  readings  of  Andy  Sullivan,  the  tailor 
from  Bandon,  or  of  *  one  Flanagan,  the  college-bred  man,’ 
dream  of  the  possibility  of  a  revolution  so  miraculous. 
And  j  et  it  has  come  to  pass. 


CHAPTER  V. 


The  Irish  in  Quebec — Their  Progress  and  Success — Education 
entirely  Free — Montreal — Number  and  position  of  the  Irish — 
Their  Difficulties  and  Progress — Beneficial  Influence  of  good 
Priests — St  Patrick’s  Hall. 


TTNTERING  Canada  at  Quebec,  the  presence  of  a  strong 
I and  even  influential  Irish  element  is  at  once  observable. 
In  the  staple  industry  of  this  fine  old  city — the  lumber  trade 
— the  Irish  take  a  prominent  part.  About  700,000  tons 
of  shipping  are  annually  loaded  at  Quebec ;  and  in  this 
vast  business  the  Irish  perform  the  principal  part.  This 
trade  is  divided  into  several  branches,  some  requiring  dif¬ 
ferent  degrees  of  skill  and  judgment ;  others  calling  for 
physical  strength,  endurance,  or  dexterity ;  more  neces¬ 
sitating  the  possession  of  capital.  Thus,  for  instance, 
there  is  a  valuable  class  of  men  employed  in  sorting  and 
measuring  timber,  who  are  called  ‘  cullers,’  whose  business 
requires  special  skill  and  aptitude  ;  and  these  men  are 
principally  Irish.  Cullers  can  make  as  much  as  300/. 
a-year ;  the  very  same  class  who  in  Ireland  would  think 
themselves  fortunate  if  they  could  earn  one-sixtli  of  that 
income.  Then  there  are  ‘  cove-owners,’  who  purchase, 
store,  and  prepare  timber  for  exportation — who,  in  fact, 
sell  to  the  shippers.  The  cove-owners  are  principally  Irish. 
The  cove-owner  does  a  large  business,  and  enjoys  a  good 
credit,  and  he  generally  lives  well,  keeps  his  country 
house,  and  even  drives  his  own  carriage.  Nor  are  there 
wanting  Irishmen  in  the  ranks  of  the  shippers,  men  of 
large  means  and  good  standing  in  the  commercial  world. 
Then  for  that  extensive  department  in  which  strength, 
dexterity,  and  endurance  are  all  essential,  the  Irish  com- 


92 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


rnand  the  best  position,  and,  as  a  necessary  consequence, 
they  receive  the  highest  rate  of  payment.  On  an  average, 
the  working  men  employed  in  the  various  branches  of  the 
lumber  business  of  the  port  earn  from  G.s.  and  8s.,  even  to 
10s.  a  day;  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  there  is  a 
considerable  portion  of  the  year  during  which  employment 
becomes  scarce,  and  even  ceases  altogether ;  therefore  the 
man  whose  sole  capital  is  his  labour  must  determine  to 
save  for  the  hard  weather,  which  is  sure  to  come,  or  he 
must  be  ready  to  go  into  the  woods  as  a  lumberman,  or 
seek  employment  wherever  it  can  be  procured. 

It  is  pleasant  to  know  that  not  only  are  the  Irish  in 
Quebec,  and  indeed  along  the  St.  Lawrence,  among  the 
most  industrious  and  energetic  portion  of  the  population, 
but  that  they  are  thrifty  and  saving,  and  have  acquired 
considerable  property.  Thus  along  the  harbour,  from  the 
Champlain  Market  westward  to  the  limits  of  the  city,  an 
extent  of  two  miles,  the  property,  including  wharves, 
warehouses,  and  dwelling-houses,  belong  principally  to 
the  Irish,  who  form  the  bulk  of  the  population  in  that 
quarter.  And  by  Irish  I  here  mean  Catholic  Irish.  There 
are  many  Irishmen  of  othei  persuasions,  eminent  in  trade 
and  commerce,  men  of  the  highest  standing  and  repute ; 
but  not  only  are  there  many  Catholic  Irishmen,  who  came 
out  to  Canada  with  little  more  than  their  skill  as  me¬ 
chanics,  or  their  capability  as  labourers,  now  in  positive 
affluence,  but  the  larger  proportion  of  those  who  live  by 
their  daily  toil  have  acquired  and  possess  property  of  more 
or  less  value.  This  property  usually  consists  of  the  plot 
of  land  on  which  they  have  erected  a  house  for  their  own 
occupation,  and  another  to  let  to  tenants.  As  the  fortunes 
of  the  family  increased,  so  did  the  house,  until  at  length  a 
decent  dwelling,  of  at  least  two  storeys,  was  secured ;  then 
the  house  for  the  tenant  was  constructed.  It  is  ascertained 
that  the  Catholic  Irish — the  Irish  of  the  working  classes — 
have  80,000/.,  or  $400,000,  lodged  in  the  Savings’  Bank  of 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  QUEBEC. 


93 


Quebec  ;  and  that  in  all  kinds  of  bank  and  other  stock, 
they  own  something  like  250,000/.  or  $1,225,000.  Thus  in 
the  Union  Bank,  of  400  stockholders  in  Quebec,  200  are 
Irish.  And  this  is  but  one  of  three  local  banks  in  that  city. 
Besides  possessing  extensive  house  property,  and  having 
accumulated  money,  they  are  generally  engaged  in  business, 
of  which  they  enjoy  a  fair  share.  Whatever  the  Irish  pos¬ 
sess,  they  have  made  by  their  own  unaided  industry  ;  for, 
as  a  respectable  Irishman,  who  had  himself  worked  his  way 
to  independence,  said  to  me  :  ‘  You  could  scarcely  trace 
one  that  brought  a  sovereign  with  him.5'  He  added  that 
he  had  brought  out  four  himself,  but  that  he  might  as 
well  not  have  done  so,  for  he  lent  them  to  a  person  who 
never  took  the  trouble  of  paying  them  back.  ‘And  per¬ 
haps,  after  all,  it  was  so  much  the  better  for  me  that  I  lost 
the  monev,  for  I  had  to  work  the  harder.’  Among  those 
who  came  out  ‘  poor,’  as  working  mechanics,  is  an  Irishman 
who  is  now  in  the  enjoyment  of  an  income  of  10,000/. 
a-year,  made  by  successful  contracts,  natural  ability,  and 
good  conduct.  This  case  may  be  regarded  as  a  somewhat 
remarkable  one  in  Canada,  if  the  magnitude  of  the  result 
be  regarded  ;  but  there  are  many  instances  in  which  sums 
of  20,000/.,  30,000/.,  and  50,000/.  have  been  realised  by 
the  industry  and  perseverance  of  Irishmen  who  came  to 
the  British  Provinces  ‘without  a  shilling.’  The  secret  of 
the  success  or  failure  of  Irishmen  may  be  summed  up  in  a 
sentence,  spoken  by  a  countryman  of  theirs  in  Quebec  ; 
words  which  I  have  heard  expressed  hundreds  of  times  in 
all  parts  of  America,  and  which  could  not  be  too  often 
repeated  :  ‘  Where  the  Irish  are  steady  and  sober,  tin  y  are 
4  sure  to  get  on  ;  where  they  are  drunken,  reckless,  or  im- 
‘  provident,  why  of  course  they  fail.’ 

In  Quebec,  as  in  too  many  places  in  America,  there  are 
instances  of  drunken,  reckless,  and  improvident  Irishmen  ; 
but,  happily,  these  cases  are  exceptional,  for,  as  a  rule,  the 
Irish  of  that  city  are  sober,  prudent,  and  thrifty.  And 


94 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


one  fad,  the  exact  parallel  to  which  nn  y  bo  told  of  the 
Irish  in  Montreal,  is  in  the  highest  degree  creditable  to 
the  moral  tone  which  they  maintain, — that  there  is  not  in 
the  Irish  portion  of  the  town  a  single  house  of  bad  repute, 
although  as  many  as  10,000  sailors  are  frequently  at  one 
time  in  the  port,  and  although  the  Irish  keep  lodging- 
houses,  and  places  of  entertainment,  which  are  frequented 
by  a  class  whose  influence  is  not  always  the  most  favour¬ 
able  to  public  or  private  morals. 

The  Irish  Catholics  in  Quebec,  who  number  about 
12,000,  possess  Church  property  of  their  own  creation,  to 
the  amount  of  40,000Z. ;  and  the  manner  in  which  they 
respond  to  appeals  made  to  their  charitable  feelings,  was 
strongly  impressed  on  my  mind  from  hearing  the  Pastor  of 
St.  Patrick’s  announce  from  the  pulpit  that  the  bazaar  just 
held  in  aid  of  an  hospital  for  old  and  infirm  people  had 
realised  the  net  sum  of  800b  To  this  handsome  amount 
the  wealthier  classes  had  contributed  a  fair  proportion  ; 
but  the  larger  amount  came  from  the  pockets  of  the 
working  people.  Indeed,  to  employ  the  language  of  a 
gentleman  long  connected  with  Quebec,  ‘they  form  an 
exhaustless  resource  in  every  charitable  or  religious  under¬ 
taking.’ 

I  was  afforded  a  favourable  opportunity  of  seeing  at  one 
time  a  large  body  of  the  working  class  of  Irish,  that  is 
Irish-born,  or  born  of  Irish  parents.  The  occasion  was 
a  funeral  of  a  young  man  who  had  fallen  victim  to  a 
daring  feat,  which  resulted  in  his  death.  The  nature  of  the 
death  created  a  lively  sympathy  among  his  class,  who  might 
be  described  as  ‘ship-labourers,’  engaged  in  various  de¬ 
partments  of  the  great  lumber  industry  of  the  port.  The 
procession  occupied  a  considerable  time  in  passing  the 
place  at  which  I  stood,  and  the  papers  of  the  following 
morning  estimated  the  number  who  ‘  walked  ’  at  1,200. 
There  was  not  of  that  large  body  of  working  men  a  single 
one  badly  or  shabbily  dressed  ;  all  were  well  a?  d  com- 


GOOD  LAWS  AND  FREE  EDUCATION. 


95 


fortably  clad,  while  many  were  attired  with  a  neatness  and 
even  elegance  that  could  not  be  seen  in  the  same  class  at 
home.  They  seemed  to  me  to  bear  themselves  with  an  air 
of  manly  independence,  as  free  citizens  of  a  free  country, 
in  which  the  laws  make  no  distinction  between  man  and 
man.  And  taking  into  consideration  the  dangers  and 
hardships  to  which  most  of  those  engaged  in  the  principal 
work  of  the  river  and  harbour  are  necessarily  exposed,  and 
the  temptations  to  which  the  very  nature  of  their  employ¬ 
ment  gives  rise,  these  men  are,  as  a  body,  temperate  and 
well-conducted  ;  the  country  being  the  exception. 

The  Irish  Catholic  who  must  depend  upon  himself  for 
4  getting  along  5  has  more  difficulties  to  contend  with  than 
the  Irish  Protestant,  or  the  Englishman  or  Scotchman. 
The  majority  of  the  population  are  French  ;  and  not  only 
does  the  Irishman  speak  a  different  language  to  that 
of  the  majority  of  the  population,  but  he  absorbs  a  large 
and  valuable  portion  of  the  employment,  and  pushes  his 
way  into  active  rivalry  with  the  more  wealthy  class  in 
various  branches  of  business.  Then  he  has  a  certain 
amount  of  national  jealousy  or  sectarian  feeling  to  en¬ 
counter  amongst  the  English-speaking  section  of  the  com¬ 
munity.  So  that  when  he  does  rise  above  the  mass,  and 
acquire  wealth  and  position,  it  is  at  least  certain  that  his 
struggle  has  been  hard,  and  that  his  success  has  been 
well-earned.  But  whenever  an  Irish  Catholic  in  Quebec 
or  Montreal  told  me  of  his  hard  up-hill  fight,  he  was  sure 
to  add — 4  The  laws  are  good  and  just,  and  we  enjoy  every¬ 
thing  we  have  a  right  to  hope  for.  We  have  nothing  to 
complain  of  here  ;  and  all  we  wish  is  that  you  were  as  well 
off  at  home.’  To  which  sentiment,  I  need  hardly  say,  I 
invariably  responded  with  a  cordial  4  Amen.’ 

Education  in  Lower  Canada  is  entirely  free.  Each 
denomination  enjoys  the  most  complete  liberty,  there 
being  no  compulsion  or  restriction  of  any  kind  whatever. 
And  the  magnificent  Laval  University,  so  called  after  a 


86 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


French  bishop,  enjoys  and  exercises  every  right  and  privi¬ 
lege  possessed  by  the  great  universities  of  England.  This  * 
University,  which  is  eminently  Catholic,  obtained  a  charter 
conferring  upon  it  all  the  powers  that  were  requisite  for  its 
fullest  educational  development. 

The  rights  of  the  Protestant  minority  are  protected  in  the 
amplest  manner,  as  well  by  law  as  by  the  natural  tendency 
and  feeling  of  the  majority ;  for  there  are  no  people  more 
liberal  and  tolerant,  or  more  averse  to  any  kind  of  agres¬ 
sion  on  the  faith  or  opinions  of  others,  than  the  French 
Canadians  ;  and  the  Irish  Catholics  too  well  remember  the 
bitterness  caused  by  religious  strife  in  the  old  country,  to 
desire  its  introduction,  in  any  shape  or  form,  or  under  any 
guise  or  pretence,  into  their  adopted  home.  There  are 
abundant  means  of  education  within  every  man’s  reach  ; 
and  it  is  his  own  fault  if  his  children  do  not  receive  its  full 
advantage.  But  the  Irishman,  whatever  may  be  his  own 
deficiencies  as  to  early  training,  rarely  neglects  that  of  his 
children  ;  and  in  Canada,  as  in  the  States,  the  fault  attri¬ 
buted  to  him  is  not  that  he  neglects  to  educate  them  at  all, 
but  that  he  is  tempted  to  educate  them  rather  too  highly, 
or  too  ambitiously,  than  otherwise. 


In  no  part  of  the  British  Provinces  of  North  America 
does  the  Catholic  Irishman  feel  himself  so  thoroughly  at 
home  as  in  the  beautiful  and  flourishing  city  of  Montreal. 
He  is  in  a  Catholic  city,  where  his  religion  is  respected, 
and  his  Church  is  surrounded  with  dignity  and  splendour. 
In  whichever  direction  he  turns,  he  beholds  some  mag¬ 
nificent  temple — some  college,  or  convent,  or  hospital 
— everywhere  the  Cross,  whether  reared  aloft  on  the 
spire  of  a  noble  church,  or  on  the  porch  or  gable  of  an 
asylum  or  a  school.  In  fact,  the  atmosphere  he  breathes 
is  Catholic.  Therefore  he  finds  himself  at  home  in  the 
thriving  Commercial  Capital  of  Lower  Canada.  In  no 


TIIEIR  NUMBER  AND  POSITION  IN  MONTREAL. 


97 


part  of  tlie  world  is  lie  more  perfectly  free  and  independent 
than  in  this  prosperous  seat  of  industry  and  enterprise,  in 
which,  it  may  be  remarked,  there  is  more  apparent  life  and 
energy  than  in  any  other  portion  of  the  British  Provinces. 
It  is  not,  then,  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  Catholic  Irish 
are  equal  in  number  to  the  entire  of  the  English-speaking 
Protestant  population,  including  English,  Scotch,  and 
Irish.  It  is  estimated  that  the  Irish  Catholics  are  now 
not  less  than  30,000.  Of  these  a  large  proportion  neces¬ 
sarily  belong  to  the  working  classes,  and  find  employment 
in  various  branches  of  local  industry.  Their  increase  has 
been  rapid  and  striking.  Fifty  years  since  there  were  not 
fifty  Irish  Catholic  families  in  Montreal.  It  is  about  that 
time  since  Father  Richards,  an  American,  took  compassion 
upon  the  handful  of  exiles  who  were  then  friendless  and 
unknown,  and  gathered  them  into  a  small  sacristy  attached 
to  one  of  the  minor  churches,  to  speak  to  them  in  a 
language  which  they  understood.  In  thirty  years  after¬ 
wards  their  number  had  increased  to  8,000,  and  now  they 
are  not  under  30,000. 

The  Irish  of  all  denominations  represent  a  vast  propor¬ 
tion  of  the  wealth  and  commercial  enterprise  of  Montreal ; 
and  though  the  majority  of  the  Catholic  Irish  came  out  at 
a  later  period,  and  under  far  less  favourable  circumstances, 
their  position  on  the  whole  is  in  every  way  excellent. 
They  are  not  in  the  least  behindhand  in  industry,  energy, 
and  active  enterprise,  when  compared  with  any  other 
portion  of  the  community.  As  merchants,  traders,  and 
manufacturers,  Catholic  Irishmen,  who  commenced  without 
any  capital,  other  than  a  moderate  share  of  education, 
natural  intelligence  and  good  conduct,  are  steadily  yet 
rapidly  rising  to  wealth  and  social  position  ;  and  instances 
without  number  might  be  recorded  of  men,  who  could 
scarcely  write  their  names  when  they  landed  on  the  wharf 
of  Montreal,  who,  thanks  to  their  native  energy  and  reso¬ 
lute  good  conduct,  are  this  day  rich  and  independent. 

5 


P8 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


Tlie  Savings  Bank  is  the  strong-box  of  the  prudent  man 
of  moderate  means  and  humble  position ;  there  he  places 
his  little  surplus  capital,  generally  after  having  built  for 
himself  a  house  or  ‘  store,’  as  a  shop  is  termed  in  America. 
The  position  and  character  of  the  Irish  working  classes 
in  Montreal  may  be  fairly  estimated  from  the  fact,  that  of 
$1,000,000  deposited  in  the  Savings  Bank  of  that  city, 
four-fifths,  or  $800,000,  belong  exclusively  to  them.  A 
large  portion  of  the  stock  of  the  Ontario  Bank  also  stands 
in  their  name.  Then  they  possess  considerable  house 
property,  two-thirds  of  which  is  insured.  Griffintown,  the 
principal  Irish  quarter,  is  almost  entirely  owned  by  the 
working  classes ;  and  here,  as  in  Quebec,  not  a  single 
house  of  ill-fame  is  to  be  found  in  the  entire  district.  In 
Griffintown,  poverty  and  WTetcliedness,  miserably  clad 
children  and  slatternly  women  are  occasionally  to  be  seen  ; 
•but  they  are  comparatively  rare  ;  and  in  almost  every  case 
the  drunkenness  of  the  father,  or  the  tippling  of  the  mother, 
is  the  sole  cause  of  the  wretchedness  and  degradation 
which,  happily  exceptional,  form  a  dark  contrast  to  the 
prevailing  sobriety,  thrift,  and  good  conduct  distinguish¬ 
ing  the  Catholic  Irish  of  Montreal. 

While  it  is  true  that  the  Irish  Catholic  feels  himself 
more  at  home  in  Lower  Canada  than  in  the  other  Pro¬ 
vinces,  Upper  Canada  especially,  it  must  not  be  supposed 
that  he  has  not  had  many  and  serious  difficulties  to  con¬ 
tend  against.  Whatever  may  now  be  the  feelings  of  the 
French  Canadians  towards  the  Irish,  they  were  strongly 
hostile  to  them  at  one  period ;  for  in  the  rebellion  of  1837, 
the  Irish,  influenced  in  a  great  measure  by  two  eminent 
priests  of  their  own  country — Father  McMahon,  of  Quebec, 
a  man  of  surpassing  power  as  an  orator,  and  in  every 
respect  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  of  his  time ;  and 
Father  Phelan,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Kingston — generally 
sided  with  the  British  Power,  and  against  the  insurgents 
of  that  day.  This  was  one  and  a  very  natural  cause  of 


TIIEIR  DIFFICULTIES  AND  PROGRESS. 


99 


prejudice  against  them.  Difference  of  language  must  at 
all  times,  even  under  the  most  favourable  circumstances, 
create  a  barrier  against  international  fusion,  or  thorough 
sympathy  between  races  ;  added  to  which,  the  humbler 
class  of  the  new-comers  soon  began  to  occupy  situations 
and  even  monopolise  branches  of  industry  previously 
occupied  and  monopolised  by  the  French  Canadians. 
Then*  as  may  be  supposed,  the  Catholic  Irish  were  not 
much  befriended  by  the  English-speaking  portion  of  the 
population  ;  so  that  here,  as  in  most  other  places,  the  Irish 
emigrant  had  to  fight  his  way  up  under  circumstances  suf¬ 
ficient  to  daunt  any  other  people,  but  which  difficulties 
seem  to  have  had  the  effect  of  bracing  their  energies  and 
ensuring  their  success.  It  is  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century 
since  Francis  Hincks.  now  Governor  of  the  Bermudas,  and 
Louis  Drummond,  now  an  eminent  and  highly  respected 
Judge  of  the  Supreme  Courts  of  Lower  Canada — the  one 
a  "Unitarian,  the  other  a  Catholic,  and  both  Irishmen — 
infused  life  and  spirit  into  the  Catholic  Irish  of  Montreal, 
and  gave  them  a  sense  of  pride  and  consciousness  of 
strength,  which  they  much  required.  Now  they  form  a 
large  and  important  section  of  the  population  of  the  finest 
and  most  prosperous  city  of  British  North  America,  and 
they  are  thoroughly  conscious  of  their  strength  and  legiti¬ 
mate  influence. 

I  had  the  pleasure,  on  several  occasions  in  Montreal,  of 
meeting  the  very  elite  of  my  countrymen  of  all  denomina¬ 
tions  ;  and  I  found  among  those  who,  when  they  com¬ 
menced,  had  to  rely  altogether  on  their  own  exertions, 
more  of  the  American  spirit  than  in  almost  any  other  city 
in  the  colonies.  There  is  greater  manufacturing  enterprise 
in  Montreal  than  elsewhere  in  British  America  ;  there  are 
therefore  larger  sources  of  employment  throughout  the 
year  for  the  working  classes,  to  many  of  whom,  indeed  to 
most  of  whom,  the  winter  is  a  season  of  trial  and  priva* 
tion. 


100 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


Among  those  whom  I  met,  was  an  enterprising  manu¬ 
facturer,  who  boasted  of  his  being  ‘  a  Cork  boy,’  a  pupil  of 
the  Christian  Brothers,  and  an  apprentice  of  the  Messrs. 
Hegarty,  the  eminent  tanners  of  his  native  city.  He  w~as 
doing  a  thriving  business,  his  orders  being  over  $100,000 
in  advance  of  his  means  of  supply.  He  had  left  the  States 
some  dozen  years  before,  being  anxious  to  afford  his  young 
family  the  advantages  of  a  sound  Catholic  education,  which 
at  that  time  was  not  of  such  easy  attainment  in  the  city 
where  he  then  resided  as  it  has  since  become.  Prosper¬ 
ous  himself,  he  was  enthusiastic  in  his  description  of  every¬ 
thing  in  Montreal,  particularly  the  position  occupied  by 
Ids  co-religionists.  ‘We  Irish  Catholics/  he  said,  ‘are  in 

*  a  strong  position  in  this  city.  There  is  no  city  in  the 

*  States  in  which  we  occupy  a  more  favourable  position 

*  than  we  do  here.  We  feel  ourselves  at  home  here  ;  we 
'  are  not  foreigners,  as  we  are  sometimes  considered  else¬ 
where.  The  laws  are  good,  and  we  have  all  that  we  can 
fairly  desire,  and  we  can  educate  our  children  in  the  best 
manner,  and  just  as  we  please.  In  fact,  we  could  not  be 
better  off.  This  is  the  place  for  an  honest  and  industrious 
man,  but  not  for  the  idler  or  the  drunkard.  There  is  no 

*  fear,  in  this  country,  of  a  sober  man,  who  is  willing  to 
work  ;  but  he  must  be  sober  and  industrious.’ 

My  worthy  friend  was  himself  a  rigid  teetotaller — to 
which  fact  he  attributed  most  of  his  prosperity. 

It  is  foreign  to  the  purpose  of  this  book  to  describe 
the  public  institutions  and  buildings  of  any  place  ;  but  I 
cannot  refrain  from  expressing  my  admiration  of  Montreal, 
which  is  in  every  respect  worthy  of  its  high  reputation. 
It  has  an  air  at  once  elegant  and  solid,  many  of  its  streets 
spacious  and  alive  with  traffic  and  bustle,  its  places  of 
doing  business  substantial  and  handsome  ;  its  public  build¬ 
ings  really  imposing,  and  its  churches  generally  splendid, 
and  not  a  few  of  them  positively  superb.  This  description 
of  the  churches  of  Montreal  is  not  limited  to  the  Jesuits' 


BENEFICIAL  INFLUENCE  OF  GOOD  PRIESTS. 


101 


Church,  the  stately  Paroisse ,  and  the  grand  church  of  St. 
Patrick,  of  which  the  Irish  are  deservedly  proud  ;  it  ap¬ 
plies  with  equal  propriety  to  the  Episcopalian  Cathedral, 
and  more  than  one  church  belonging  to  the  Dissenting 
bodies.  Montreal  is  rich  in  all  kinds  of  charitable,  edu¬ 
cational,  and  religious  institutions  ;  and  such  is  the  in¬ 
fluence  and  power  of  the  Catholic  element,  that  this  beau¬ 
tiful  city,  which  is  every  day  advancing  in  prosperity  and 
population,  is  naturally  regarded  by  the  Catholic  Irish¬ 
man  as  a  home.  The  humble  man  sees  his  co-religion¬ 
ists  advancing  in  every  walk  of  life,  filling  positions  of 
distinction — honoured  and  respected ;  and,  instead  of 
mere  toleration  for  his  faith,  he  witnesses,  in  the  mag¬ 
nificent  procession  of  Corpus  Christi,  which  annually  pours 
its  solemn  splendour  through  the  streets,  a  spectacle 
consoling  alike  to  his  religious  feeling  and  his  personal 
pride. 

The  influence  of  really  good  priests,  who  combine  wis¬ 
dom  with  piety — who,  in  their  zeal  for  the  spiritual  welfare 
of  their  flock,  do  not  overlook  their  temporal  interests  and 
material  progress — is  at  all  times  most  serviceable  to  the 
Irish  ;  and  nowhere  is  that  influence  more  required,  or 
more  potent  when  exercised,  than  in  America.  Happily 
for  the  race,  it  is  exercised  very  generally  throughout  that 
country,  and  in  no  instance  without  the  most  beneficial 
results,  in  their  improved  tone,  their  greater  industry,  and 
their  habits  of  thrift  and  saving.  The  good  priests  of  St. 
Patrick’s — the  Sulpitian  Fathers  of  Montreal — employ  this 
salutary  influence  with  results  most  cheering  to  witness. 
It  lifts  the  Irish  up  ;  it  raises  their  social  condition  ;  it 
induces  them  to  acquire  and  accumulate  property — in  fact, 
by  the  very  improvements  which  they  are  induced  to  effect, 
to  identify  themselves  with  the  progress  of  the  commu¬ 
nity.  To  acquire  this  most  desirable  influence  over  an 
Irish  congregation,  the  priest  need  not  be  an  Irishman  ; 
but  he  should  be  wise  and  pious,  and  his  people  should 


102 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


feel  that  he  has  sympathy  zoith  them.  The  lack  of  this 
essential  sympathy  is  often  fatal  to  the  best  intentions  of 
the  best  men ;  where  it  exists,  it  supplies  or  compensates 
lor  the  want  of  many  qualities,  if  not  actually  essential, 
at  least  very  valuable  in  a  priest.  The  good  Fathers  of  St. 
Patrick’s  in  Montreal— and  fortunately  they  have  their  like 
in  every  direction — in  every  Province  and  every  State 
— combine  all  these  requirements  ;  they  are  wise  as  well 
as  pious,  and  they  have  a  profound  sympathy  with  their 
flock. 

St.  Patrick’s  Hall — of  which  I  only  saw  the  broad  found¬ 
ations — is  creditable  alike  to  the  enterprise  and  public 
spirit  of  the  Irish  of  Montreal.  The  Hall  itself  will  be  as 
spacious  as  a  cathedral — 134  feet  long,  by  94  feet  wide, 
within  the  walls,  and  46  feet  high.  The  national  senti¬ 
ment  is  gratified  in  the  architecture  of  the  building,  which 
is  ‘purely  Irish,  copied  from  Cormack’s  Chapel  on  the 
Rock  of  Cashel.’  The  design  is  really  grand  and  im¬ 
posing  ;  and  when  fully  realised  in  cut  limestone,  St. 
Patrick’s  Hall  will  form  one  the  most  striking  archi¬ 
tectural  ornaments  of  the  city.  With  a  front  of  144  feet 
on  Victoria  Square,  and  100  feet  on  Craig  Street,  it  is  in 
the  very  centre  of  the  business  portion  of  Montreal  ;  and 
the  fine  shops  which  are  to  form  the  ground  flat,  and  the 
show  rooms  on  the  second  flat,  together  with  sundry  rents 
derived  from  the  great  concert-room  and  other  portions 
of  the  building,  will  render  St.  Patrick’s  Hall  not  only  pleas¬ 
ing  as  a  monument  grateful  to  national  sentiment,  but 
satisfactory  as  a  speculation. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


Upper  Canada— Number  of  the  Irish — How  they  came  and  settled, 
and  how  they  got  along ;  Illustrated  by  the  district  of  Peter¬ 
borough — Difficulties  and  Hardships— Calumnies  refuted — What 
the  Settlers  did  in  a  few  Months — Early  Trials — Progress  and 
Contrast — Father  Gordon — Church-building  in  the  Forest— An 
early  Settler — A  Sad  Accident — A  Long  Journey  to  Mass — A 
•  Story  strange  but  true — The  Last  Grain  of  Tea— leather  Gordon 
on  the  Irish  and  their  Love  of  the  Faith. 

rilHE  Irish  form  fully  half  the  population  of  what  still, 
|_  Confederation  notwithstanding,  may  be  designated  as 
Upper  Canada.  Of  these  the  Catholics  may  be  said  to  be 
nearly  one  half.  Fortunately  for  the  Irish  in  Canada, 
they  have  generally  adopted  the  kind  of  industry  best 
suited  to  their  knowledge  and  capacity,  and  do  not,  as  it 
is  too  much  the  habit  of  their  brethren  in  the  States, 
crowd  into  the  large  towns,  for  which,  by  habit  and  educa¬ 
tion,  they  are  not  suited.  They  are  scattered  over  the 
land  in  great  numbers,  either  in  settlements,  in  groups, 
or  singly  ;  but  in  whatever  manner  distributed  over  the 
face  of  the  country,  they  are,  as  a  rule,  doing  well.  The 
Catholic  Irish  aret  in  many  instances  to  be  found  in  almost 
exclusively  Catholic  settlements  ;  but  they  are  also  to  be 
met  with  in  the  midst  of  Scotch  and  English,  and  mixed 
up  with  their  Protestant  countrymen,  who  have  mostly 
come  from  the  north  of  Ireland.  There  are  Catholic 
settlements  of  every  date — from  six,  ten,  and  twenty  years, 
to  thirty  and  forty  years,  backwards  —  generally  in  a 
flourishing  condition,  and  in  every  one  of  which  are  to  be 
seen  extraordinary  examples  of  courage,  energy,  and  en¬ 
durance,  such  as  may  well  make  an  Irishman  proud  and 
hopeful  of  his  race. 

It  would  not  serve  any  useful  object  were  I  to  ask  the 
reader  to  accompany  me  through  various  counties  or  town- 


104 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


ships  of  Canada  ;  my  purpose  is  rather,  by  the  aid  of  an 
occasional  sketch,  to  show  how  and  in  what  manner  the 
humbler  and  poorer  Irish  emigrants  have  succeeded  in 
making  a  home  for  themselves  in  their  adopted  country. 
In  order  to  appreciate  what  they  have  done,  it  is  necessary 
to  afford  some  idea  of  the  difficulties  that  lay  in  their  path. 
That  they  have  succeeded  in  rendering  themselves  in¬ 
dependent,  and  in  laying  the  foundation  of  a  prosperous 
future  for  their  descendants,  is  undoubtedly  true  ;  but  we 
may  profitably  glance  at  the  past,  to  see  how  all  this  has 
been  accomplished.  I  prefer  rather  to  deal  with  those  who 
came  out  poor,  without  capital,  depending  for  their  daily 
bread  on  the  labour  of  their  hands,  than  with  those  who, 
emigrating  under  more  favourable  circumstances,  were 
never  called  on  for  the  display  of  the  qualities  essential 
to  the  rude  pioneer,  whose  chief  capital  consisted  in  a 
strong  arm,  a  keen  axe,  and  a  bold  heart.  I  cannot 
better  commence  than  with  a  brief  sketch  of  the  settle¬ 
ment  of  one  of  the  most  prosperous  districts  in  Canada — 
Peterborough. 

In  the  year  1825,  now  forty-two  years  since,  a  con¬ 
siderable  number  of  emigrants,  consisting  of  415  families, 
or  2,000  individuals,  sailed  from  Cork  Harbour  on  their 
way  to  Canada,  where,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Govern¬ 
ment,  they  were  to  establish  a  home  for  themselves  in 
what  was  then  a  forest  wilderness,  the  abiding  place  of  the 
wolf  and  the  bear.  These  2,000  people  were  all  from  the 
south  of  Ireland,  genuine  Irish  in  birth  and  blood.  Let 
us  follow  the  footsteps  of  those  humble  people,  and  learn 
how  they  battled  with  the  difficulties  of  a  new  and  trying 
position,  and  what  they  accomplished  for  themselves  and 
the  country  of  their  adoption. 

The  voyage  across  the  Atlantic  was  wonderfully  prosper¬ 
ous.  Heaven  seemed  to  smile  upon  the  poor  exiles,  and 
give  them  courage  for  what  they  had  soon  to  meet.  In  a 
few  weeks  after  their  arrival  at  Quebec,  they  were  found 


THE  SETTLERS  OF  PETERBOROUGH. 


105 


encamped  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Ontario,  near  Cobourg, 
waiting  for  means  of  transport  to  their  intended  settle¬ 
ment,  in  what  is  now  the  rich  and  fertile  county  of  Peter¬ 
borough,  then  mostly  a  verdant  wilderness.  These  people 
were  the  pioneers  of  civilisation,  for  their  future  home  was 
fully  forty  miles  distant  from  the  frontier  settlement  of 

that  dav.  There  was  not  then  even  the  semblance  of  a 
«/ 

track  through  the  wooded  country  which  they  had  to 
traverse,  and  a  kind  of  road  had  to  be  cut  from  Lake 
Ontario  to  Rice  Lake,  a  distance  of  twelve  miles  through 
the  tangled  forest.  Rice  Lake  had  then  to  be  crossed,  and 
the  rapid  and  turgid  Otanabee,  for  the  distance  of  twenty- 
five  miles,  was  to  be  ascended  by  this  little  army  of 
settlers.  In  order  to  cross  the  lake  and  ascend  the  river, 
three  boats  were  constructed,  and  propelled  on  wheels  over 
the  rough  track  from  the  one  lake  to  the  other ;  but  when 
this  part  of  the  difficulty  was  got  over,  and  the  baggage 
and  provisions  were  brought  so  far  in  safety,  it  was  found 
that,  owing  to  the  dryness  of  the  season,  and  the  con¬ 
sequent  shallowness  of  the  wTaters  of  the  Otanabee,  it  was 
impossible  to  proceed  without  additional  means  of  trans¬ 
port;  so  a  great  boat  of  light  draught,  sixty  feet  in  length, 
by  eight  feet  in  width,  had  to  be  at  once  constructed, 
and  with  the  aid  of  stout  rowers,  frequently  relieving  each 
other,  this  vessel  was  steered  through  the  rapids,  and  got 
somehow  over  the  shallows.  After  difficulties  and  hard¬ 
ships,  enough  to  fill  the  poor  adventurers  with  despair — 
which  difficulties  and  hardships  were  aggravated  by  fever 
and  ague,  that  alike  unsparingly  attacked  the  robust  and 
the  delicate,  the  strong  on  whom  the  weak  relied,  and  the 
weak  who  were  thus  rendered  still  more  helpless — they 
arrived  at  what  is  now  known  as  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
and  prosperous  towns  in  Canada,  and  was  then  but  a 
trackless  wilderness.  Those  who  arrived  first  commenced 
immediately  to  put  up  rude  huts,  or  wigwams,  made  of 
great  strips  of  bark,  branches  of  trees,  and  sods;  and  as 


I  (Hi 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


batch  after  batch  of  emigrants  arrived,  after  successfully 
passing  the  rapids  and  shallows  of  the  river,  the  landing- 
place  presented  an  animated  appearance,  which  gave  some 
idea  of  a  new  home  to  the  exiles,  and  cheered  their  droop¬ 
ing  spirits.  Here  they  remained  encamped  until  they 
proceeded  to  settle  on  the  lands  in  the  neighbourhood. 
The  proportion  of  land  granted  to  each  family  of  five 
persons  was  100  acres;  but  each  grown-up  son  was  also 
allowed  the  same  quantity  for  himself.  Soon  the  tem¬ 
porary  huts  made  their  appearance  here  and  there  in 
groups,  as  the  attractions  of  friendship  or  acquaintance 
induced  families  to  seek  each  other’s  neighbourhood,  or  as 
greater  facilities  for  shelter  or  comfort  suggested;  and  it 
was  not  long  before  this  Irish  camp  assumed  the  air  .of 
a  place  of  business.  The  novelty  of  the  present,  and  the 
uncertainty  of  the  future,  must  have  deeply  impressed  the 
most  thoughtful  and  observant  of  the  settlers ;  but  that 
which  gave  them  the  greatest  uneasiness  was  the  absence 
of  a  spiritual  director  and  comforter — of  the  Priest,  to 
whose  guidance  and  ministrations  they  had  all  their  lives 
been  accustomed.  They  embraced  the  first  opportunity  of 
appealing  to  the  Governor-General  of  the  Province  to 
supply  this  great  want ;  and  in  their  memorial,  which  is 
touching  in  its  simple  earnestness,  they  display  their 
traditional  love  of  education  and  devotion  to  their  faith. 
They  say :  ‘Please  your  Excellency,  we  labour  under  a 
‘heavy  grievance,  which  we  confidently  hope  your  Excel¬ 
lency  will  redress,  and  then  we  will  be  completely  happy, 
‘viz.,  the  want  of  clergymen  to  administer  to  us  the 
‘  comforts  of  our  Holy  Religion,  and  good  schoolmasters  to 
‘instruct  our  children.’  What  a  comment  is  this  on  a  comi¬ 
cal  absurdity  which  I  heard  uttered  in  no  less  important  a 
place  than  the  House  of  Commons — that  the  Irish  were 
rushing  to  America  in  order  to  get  rid  of  their  priests ! 

Calumny  and  slander  had  followed  these  poor  exiles 
across  the  ocean,  and  tracked  them  to  their  new  home  in 


CALUMNY  REFUTED. 


1 07 


tlie  wilderness.  When  first  the  people  in  the  frontier 
settlement — for  the  most  part  immigrants  themselves,  or 
the  sons  of  immigrants  from  the  United  States,  who  re¬ 
fused  to  abandon  their  allegiance  to  the  British  Crown 
at  the  time  of  the  American  Revolution — heard  of  the 
arrival  of  these  2,000  ‘Irish  Papists’  in  the  neighbour¬ 
hood,  they  became  alarmed  for  their  property,  and  even 
for  their  personal  safety.  This  alarm  and  prejudice  were 
caused  by  stories  circulated  by  those  who,  unhappily,  had 
brought  the  old  unnatural  hatred  with  them  to  a  new 
country.  However,  such  was  the  order  maintained  in  the 
c<  lony,  and  such  the  excellent  conduct  of  the  settler,  that 
it  became  quickly  apparent  that  these  stories  were  false  and 
unfounded.  A  person  then  residing  near  the  colony  bears 
testimony  to  their  industry,  energy,  and  good  conduct,  in 
a  letter  dated  January  182G,  a  few  months  after  their 
arrival.  The  letter  is  written  to  a  friend  : — 

‘I  am  licre  in  the  very  midst  of  them;  from  twenty  to  thirty  pass 
my  door  almost  daily.  I  visit  the  camp  frequently,  and  converse 
with  them  on  their  affairs,  and  find  them  happy  and  contented.  In  gen¬ 
eral,  they  are  making  great  exertions  in  clearing  land  ,  and  their  efforts 
have  astonished  many  of  the  old  settlers.  Not  one  complaint  has  been 
made  against  them  by  any  of  the  old  settlers,  and  it  is  the  general 
opinion  that  when  so  large  a  body  of  people  are  brought  together 
r.one  could  conduct  themselves  better.  When  we  heard  of  their 
coming  amongst  us,  we  did  not  like  the  idea,  and  immediately  began 
to  think  it  necessary  to  put  bolts  and  bars  on  our  doors  and  windows. 
All  these  fears  are  vanished.  These  fears,  I  must  acknowledge,  were 
in  consequence  of  stories  that  were  put  in  circulation  before  their  arrival 
in  that  part,  which  have  all  turned  out  to  be  equally  false.’ 

Let  us  now  see  what  were  the  results  of  the  energy  and 
industry  of  this  colony  of  Irish  settlers  in  the  short  space 
of  a  single  year.  Remember,  these  people  were  not  what 
it  is  the  strange  fashion  in  some  parts  of  America  to 
describe  as,  and  the  shameful  fashion  to  admit  as  being — 
‘  Scotcli-Irish  they  were  genuine  Irish,  in  feeling  as  in 
blood.  These  2,000  ‘Irish  Papists/  whose  path  of  exile 


108 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


was  tracked  by  wicked  lies,  sailed  from  Cork  in  May  1825 ; 
and  in  November  1826  they  weie  proved  to  have  done 
this  work  : — they  had  cleared  and  fenced  1,825  acres  of 
land,  and  raised  off  the  land  so  cleared  67,000  bushels  of 
potatoes,  25,000  bushels  of  turnips,  10,000  bushels  of 
Indian  corn,  363  acres  of  wheat,  9,000  pounds  of  maple 
sugar ;  and  they  had  purchased,  by  their  labour,  40  oxen, 
80  cows,  and  166  hogs ;  the  total  value  of  the  single 
year’s  work,  literally  hewn  out  of  the  wilderness,  by  the 
sturdy  energy  of  these  Celts,  being  estimated  at  12,524?. ! 

These  figures  represent  amazing  energy  and  marvellous 
success,  but  they  do  not  do  full  justice  to  the  people  by 
whom  this  work  was  done  :  for  while  they  were  engaged  in 
the  novel  labour  of  cutting  down  the  lofty  and  ponderous 
trees  of  the  virgin  forest,  they  were  assailed  by  those 
enemies  to  the  first  settlers — Fever  and  Ague — that  seem 
to  resent  man’s  invasion  of  the  solitudes  of  nature,  and 
endeavour  to  drive  back  his  daring  footsteps.  Dr.  Poole, 
a  resident  physician,  writing  of  the  sufferings  of  these 
early  colonists,  says  that  the  fever  and  ague  assailed  them 
almost  from  the  first  moment  they  arrived  in  the  country  ; 
and  many  strong  hearts  were  unmanned,  and  many  vigor¬ 
ous  forms  prostrated,  during  the  earlier  seasons  of  their 
forest  life.  Scarcely  a  family  escaped,  and  sometimes 
entire  families  were  afflicted  with  the  ague  for  months 
together  ;  and  such  was  the  violence  of  the  disease,  and 
their  utter  helplessness,  that,  at  times,  they  were  hardly 
able  to  hand  each  other  a  drink  of  water!  It  is  a  wonder¬ 
ful  instance  of  energy  and  perseverance ;  and  it  may  be 
well  doubted  if  a  greater  amount  of  work  has  ever  been 
accomplished  during  the  first  year  by  an  equal  number  of 
persons,  under  equally  unfavourable  circumstances,  in  any 
part  of  America.  It  must  be  also  borne  in  mind,  that  not 
one  of  these  settlers  had  ever  felled  a  tree  until  he  set 
his  foot  in  Canada. 

The  immigrants  or  settlers  of  forty  years  since  suffered 


EARLY  DIFFICULTIES. 


109 


from  inconveniences  that  are  comparatively  rare  in  the 
present  day,  and  among  the  chief  and  most  serious  of 
these  was  the  want  of  mills  to  grind  the  produce  of  their 
fields.  The  difficulty  was  not  to  raise  the  grain,  but  to 
convert  it  into  flour,  and  thus  render  it  fit  for  the  food  of 
man.  It  is  recorded  that,  at  an  interview  of  a  Scotch 
settler  with  the  Governor,  he  told  his  Excellency — ‘We 
‘  have  no  mill,  sir,  and  save  your  presence,  sir,  I  have  to 
‘  get  up  at  night  to  chew  corn  for  the  children.’  Possibly 
the  settlers  from  Cork  were  not  subjected  to  a  toil  so 
fearful  as  that  endured  by  the  devoted  Scotchman  ;  but  the 
only  grist-mill  within  reach  being  at  a  distance  of  between 
fifteen  and  twenty  miles,  it  was  necessary  for  the  person 
who  desired  to  get  his  corn  ground  to  convey  it  to  that 
distance  on  his  back,  and  to  return  with  it  the  same  dis¬ 
tance  when  it  was  converted  into  flour  ;  and  frequently 
would  some  sturdy  Irishman  shoulder  his  bag  of  grain, 
and  bear  it  on  his  back  those  long  and  weary  miles,  his 
only  food  some  potatoes  which  his  wife  had  prepared  for  his 
toilsome  journey.  In  the  winter  a  liand-sleigh,  that  could 
be  pushed  over  the  snow,  would  afford  facilities  for  taking 
corn  to  the  mill,  or  for  the  transport  of  provisions  ;  but 
there  were  states  of  the  weather  when  the  snow,  which  at 
other  times  afforded  an  easy  track,  was  a  source  of  im¬ 
pediment  and  danger.  For  many  years  the  skin  of  the 
nog  was  made  into  covering  for  the  feet,  the  hairy  side 
being  turned  inwards  ;  and  as  a  substitute  for  tea,  which 
was  then  a  costly  luxury,  attainable  only  by  the  rich,  or 
those  within  reach  of  towns,  wild  peppermint  and  other 
herbs  were  made  to  take  its  place. 

What  but  the  manly  vigour  for  which  the  Irish  race 
are  now  proverbial  in  the  countries  to  which  they  have 
migrated,  could  have  so  speedily  overcome  the  difficulties 
of  a  first  settlement  in  the  wilderness  ?  Not  a  few  of 
those  who  sailed  from  Coik  in  1825  have  passed  away, 
after  a  life  of  hard  and  ceaseless  toil,  and  others  now 


110 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


stand,  as  it  were,  on  the  brink  of  the  grave  ;  but  their 
sons  and  their  grandsons,  their  daughters  and  their  grand¬ 
daughters,  flourish  in  the  midst  of  prosperity  and  comfort, 
of  which  those  who  went  before  them  were  the  creators. 
The  shanty  and  the  wigwam  and  the  log  hut  have  long 
since  given  place  to  the  mansion  of  brick  and  stone  ;  and 
the  liand-sleigli  and  the  rude  cart  to  the  strong  waggon 
and  the  well-appointed  carriage.  Where  there  was  but 
one  miserable  grist-mill,  there  are  now  mills  and  factories 
of  various  kinds.  And  not  only  are  there  spacious  schools 
under  the  control  of  those  who  erected  and  made  use  of 
them  for  their  children,  but  the  *  heavy  grievance  ’  which 
edsted  in  1825  has  long  since  been  a  thing  of  the  past. 
The  little  chapel  of  logs  and  shingle — 18  feet  by  20 — in 
which  the  settlers  of  that  day  knelt  in  gratitude  to  God, 
has  for  many  years  been  replaced  by  a  noble  stone  church, 
through  whose  painted  windows  the  Canadian  sunlight 
streams  gloriously,  and  in  which  two  thousand  worshippers 
listen  with  the  old  Irish  reverence  to  the  words  of  their 
pastor.  The  tones  of  the  pealing  organs  swell  in  solemn 
harmony,  where  the  simple  chaunt  of  the  first  settlers  was 
raised  in  the  midst  of  the  wilderness  ;  and  for  miles  round 
may  the  voice  of  the  great  bell,  swinging  in  its  lofty  tower, 
be  heard  in  the  calm  of  the  Lord’s  Lay,  summoning  the 
children  of  St.  Patrick  to  worship  in  the  faith  of  their 
fathers.  Well  may  the  white-haired  patriarch,  as  he 
remembers  the  sailing  from  Cork,  the  passage  across  the 
mighty  ocean,  the  journey  up  the  St.  Lawrence,  the  cutting 
of  the  road  between  the  two  lakes,  the  difficulties  of  the 
shallows,  and  the  dangers  of  the  rapids  of  the  Otanabee,  the 
camp  in  the  wilderness,  the  fever  and  the  ague  that  racked 
his  bones  in  the  early  years,  the  hard  toil  and  stern  pri¬ 
vations  ;  well  may  he  be  surprised  at  what  he  now  beholds 
—at  the  wondrous  change  wrought  by  the  skill  and 
courage  of  man,  animated  by  the  most  potent  of  all 
incentives — the  spirit  of  hope  and  the  certainty  of  reward. 


PROGRESS. 


Ill 


Twenty-five  miles  west  of  Peterborough,  another  town 
has  sprung  up  within  a  few  years — sprung  out  of  the 
forest,  as  if  by  enchantment ;  and  of  this  town  a  majority 
of  its  inhabitants  are  the  descendants  of  those  who'  left 
Cork  in  1825,  and  of  their  friends  or  relatives  who  followed 
them  in  a  few  years  after.  There  is  not  in  Canada  a 
prettier  town  than  Lindsay,  in  which  may  be  seen  a 
curious  structure,  rather  out  of  place  in  the  midst  of  brick 
and  stone.  Carefully  fenced  round,  and  kept  in  a  state  of 
preservation,  is  an  old  log  shanty,  which  is  regarded  by 
a  considerable  portion  of  the  inhabitants  with  affectionate 
voneration.  This  was  the  temple  in  which  they  wor- 
sl  upped  God  when  the  soil  on  which  the  prosperous  town 
o i  Lindsay  now  stands  was  covered  with  juniper  and  pine. 
Near  this  4  old  church  ’  is  seen  its  successor — a  splendid 
brick  edifice  of  Gothic  architecture,  erected  at  a  cost  of 
$20,000.  And  not  a  gun-shot’s  distance  from  the  old 
church  is  a  fine  block  of  shops,  equal  in  style  to  any 
buildings  in  Montreal,  which  cost  their  owner  some 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  Twenty-five  years  ago  he  was 
a  poor  lad,  not  worth  sixpence  in  the  world ;  but  he  pos¬ 
sessed  what  rarely  fails  in  the  long  run — industry,  honesty, 
intelligence,  and  steadiness. 

To  finish  the  history  of  these  Irish  immigrants,  it  may 
be  mentioned  that  the  discovery  of  gold  in  their  neigh¬ 
bourhood  has  amazingly  enhanced  the  value  of  real  estate  ; 
so  that  those  who  desire,  in  the  true  American  spirit,  to 
push  on,  and  seek  a  more  extended  field  for  their  opera¬ 
tions,  may  part  with  their  property  at  prices  which  would 
enable  them  to  purchase  whole  tracts  of  land  in  other 
places. 

Proceeding  farther  West,  we  may  behold  the  first  hard 
struggle  of  people  and  pastor,  to  reclaim  the  soil  from 
the  sterility  of  nature,  and  maintain  the  faith  in  the  midst 
of  the  wilderness. 


112 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


There  is  still  living  in  Hamilton,  Western  Canada,  as 
Vicar-General  of  the  diocese,  an  Irish  priest — Father 
Gordon,  from  Wexford — who  has  witnessed  astonishing 
changes  in  his  time.  He  has  seen  the  city  founded,  and 
the  town  spring  up ;  the  forest  cleared  and  the  settlement 
created ;  the  rude  log  chapel,  in  which  a  handful  of  the 
faithful  knelt  in  the  midst  of  the  wood,  replaced  by  the 
spacious  brick  church  in  which  many  hundreds  now  wor¬ 
ship.  And  not  only  has  he  witnessed  astonishing  changes, 
but  he  has  himself  done  much  to  effect  the  changes  which 
he  has  lived  to  see  accomplished.  It  is  now  about  thirty- 
seven  years  since  he  came  to  Toronto,  then  a  small  place, 
and  known  by  the  name  of  Little  York.  Bishop  McDon¬ 
nell,  a  Scotchman,  was  the  first  Catholic  bishop  of  the 
diocese,  at  that  time  of  immense  extent.  Father  O ‘Grady, 
a  Cork  man,  was  stationed  at  Little  York,  and  though  even 
at  that  time  the  position  of  the  Irish  Catholic  was  miser¬ 
able  in  the  extreme.  Father  O  ‘Grady  was  a  favourite  with 
the  authorities ;  and  indeed  such  were  his  social  qualities 
and  charm  of  manner,  that  no  dinner  party  was  considered 
complete  without  his  genial  presence.  Father  Gordon  had 
charge  of  the  back  townships,  twenty-four  in  number.  We 
must  appreciate  the  extent  of  his  spiritual  jurisdiction 
when  we  learn  that  a  township  comprised  an  area  of  twelve 
miles  square  ;  and  Father  Gordon  had  to  attend  twenty- 
four  of  these ! 

Irish  Catholics  there  were,  scattered  through  this  vast 
territory — very  nearly  all  of  which  was  in  its  natural  state, 
as  it  came  from  the  hand  of  God ;  but  they  were  few  and 
far  between,  hidden  in  the  recesses  of  the  forest,  most  of 
them  not  having  seen  a  priest  for  years,  perhaps  since  they 
left  their  native  home.  Many  of  these  had  worked  on  the 
Erie  canal,  and  had  come  to  Canada  and  taken  land  to 
settle.  The  fewer  in  number  brought  some  little  money 
with  them,  but  generally  their  wealth  consisted  of  provi¬ 
sions,  which  they  had  to  carry  on  their  backs  through  tlio 


FATHER  GORDON. 


113 


woods,  a  distance  of  thirty,  forty,  even  fifty  miles  So  long 
as  the  provisions  lasted,  they  cut  away  and  cleared  ;  but 
as  soon  as  the  stock  was  near  being  exhausted  they  re¬ 
turned  to  the  States,  and  went  again  on  the  public  works. 
And  thus  they  worked  and  laboured  until  they  raised 
sufficient  food  to  be  independent  of  the  merchant  and 
storekeeper.  At  this  day  these  men  are  amongst  the  most 
prosperous  in  Canada. 

The  townships  of  Adjala  and  Tecumseth,  in  the  county 
Simcoe,  are  amongst  the  most  Irish  and  Catholic  of  any  in 
Upper  Canada.  When  Father  Gordon  became  acquainted 
with  them,  there  were  in  both  but  thirty  or  forty  families, 
and  these  were  scattered  in  every  direction.  Few  were  the 
visits  which  he  could  make  in  each  district  of  his  far- 
extended  mission  ;  he  was  in  one  place  this  Sunday  and  a 
hundred  miles  in  an  opposite  direction  the  following  Sun¬ 
day.  But  the  visit  of  the  clergyman  was  an  occasion  of 
jubilee,  in  which  all  participated.  About  the  time  his 
arrival  was  expected,  scouts  would  be  on  the  watch  to  give 
the  first  notice  of  his  approach,  and  if  there  were  a  hill-top 
in  the  neighbourhood,  a  signal  fire  would  spread  the  glad 
intelligence  to  the  anxious  colony.  With  joyous  cries,  and 
clapping  of  hands,  and  eloquent  sobs,  the  pious  people 
would  hail  the  priest,  as  his  wearied  horse  bore  him  into 
their  midst ;  and  catching  the  contagion  from  them,  the 
travel- worn  missionary  would  forget  his  long  journey  and 
his  many  privations  at  the  spectacle  of  their  devotion  and 
the  cheering  accents  of  their  Irish  welcome.  Sheep  and 
poultry,  and  even  oxen,  would  be  sacrificed  by  the  pros¬ 
perous  settler,  who  was  proud  to  have  his  home  selected  for 
the  ‘  station ;  *  and  after  confessions  had  been  heard  and 
Mass  celebrated,  and  Communion  received,  then  would 
follow  the  abundant  breakfast,  of  which  all  partook,  and 
then  the  grand  dinner,  for  which  such  slaughter  had  taken 
place  ;  and  those  whom  long  distance  had  kept  for  months 
apart  would  now  rejoice  in  the  opportunity  of  talking  of 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


114 

the  old  country  and  former  times,  while  the  priest  was  ap¬ 
pealed  to  on  every  side,  as  the  best  and  surest  authority 
as  to  what  was  going  on  in  the  world  at  the  other  side  of 
the  Atlantic,  especially  in  Ireland — that  spot  to  which 
every  heart  turned  with  unceasing  love. 

In  1833  Father  Gordon  determined  to  commence  the 
work  of  church  building  in  the  forest,  and  his  first  effort 
was  successfully  made  on  the  confines  of  Adjala  and  Tecum- 
seth,  where  he  resolved  on  erecting  a  log  church.  Assem¬ 
bling  the  people,  he  asked  them  to  assist  him  in  the  good 
undertaking.  They  were  delighted  with  his  proposal,  and 
willingly  placed  themselves  at  his  command. 

‘  There  is  one  thing,  boys,  you  must  also  promise  me/ 
said  the  priest. 

‘  Why,  then,  whatever  it  is,  your  reverence,  we’ll  promise 
it,  sure  enough.’ 

c  Well,  boys/  continued  Father  Gordon,  ‘  whiskey  is  like 
the  devil — it  is  the  father  of  mischief,  and  you  know  it  is 
one  of  the  greatest  enemies  of  our  race  and  country.  It 
makes  the  best  friends  fall  out,  and  it  is  the  cause  of  vio¬ 
lence  and  murder.’ 

A  chorus  of  voices — ‘  True  for  your  reverence — ’tis  the 
blessed  truth.’ 

‘  Well,  then,’  continued  the  good  pastor,  ‘  I  want  you  to 
join  me  in  performing  one  of  the  most  acceptable  works 
which  man  can  perform  for  his  Creator  ;  that  is,  to  raise  a 
temple  to  His  honour  and  glory,  in  which  you  and  your 
children  can  worship  the  Great  Being  who  has  watched 
over  you,  and  protected  you  and  yours  in  the  midst  of 
this  forest.  I  ask  you  to  consecrate  this  great  work  by  an 
act  of  self-denial  which  will  be  pleasing  in  His  sight.  I 
want  you  to  promise  me  that  you  will  not  drink  a  drop  of 
anything  this  day  but  Avater  from  that  beautiful  spring, 
fresh  and  sparkling  from  the  hand  of  God,  while  you  are 
engaged  in  erecting  the  temple  to  His  honour.  Promise 
me  this,  and  you  will  have  a  blessing  on  your  work,  and 
you  will  bring  gladness  to  the  heart  of  your  priest.’ 


CHURCH-BUILDING  IN  THE  FOREST. 


115 


The  promise  so  solemnly  solicited  was  given  with  one 
impulse,  and  it  was  religiously  kept.  Animated  by  the 
right  spirit,  the  brave  fellows  addressed  themselves  to  their 
labour  of  love  ;  and  so  earnestly  did  they  work  that  they 
cleared  an  ample  space,  as  if  by  magic,  and  before  the  night 
set  in  they  had  erected  a  log  church,  50  feet  by  30,  on 
the  same  spot  on  which  now  stands  one  of  the  finest  eccle¬ 
siastical  buildings  in  Canada.  While  the  work  was  pro¬ 
ceeding  the  poor  priest  was  attacked  with  ague,  and  he  was 
compelled  to  lie  at  the  foot  of  a  great  tree  on  a  couch  con¬ 
structed  of  the  coats  of  the  hardy  church-builders.  When 
tie  crisis  passed  he  was  again  in  their  midst,  assisting  them 
1  y  advice  or  cheering  them  by  a  kindly  word  ;  but  during 
that  day  he  was  frequently  driven  beneath  the  pile  of 
clothing  by  a  new  paroxysm  of  his  disorder.  In  a  similar 
manner  the  same  indefatigable  priest  erected  six  other 
churches  in  the  course  of  three  years  :  and  so  careful  was 
he  in  selecting  the  best  sites,  as  to  position,  convenience, 
and  conspicuousness,  that  in  every  case  these  primitive 
structures  have  been  replaced  by  good  churches,  solidly 
built,  with  comfortable  dwellings  for  the  priests  attached. 
These  churches,  erected  in  the  midst  of  the  forest,  are  now 
every  Sunday  surrounded  by  forty  or  fifty  ‘  waggons,’  many 
of  them  with  a  pair  of  good  horses,  the  property  of  the 
substantial  yeomanry,  nay  the  gentry  of  the  country,  who, 
little  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  since,  were  penniless 
emigrants,  with  no  friend  save  Providence,  and  no  capital 
other  than  their  strength,  their  industry  and  their  intelli¬ 
gence.  Let  us  take  one  of  these  pioneers  of  civilisation  as 
an  instance  of  what  in  those  days  they  had  to  endure. 

It  is  now  about  thirty  years  since  an  honest  hardworking 
Irishman  determined  to  go  into  the  woods,  and  there  make 
a  home  for  himself  and  his  wife  and  infant  child.  He 
had  not,  as  he  afterwards  used  to  declare,  ‘  as  much 
as  a  half-crown  in  the  world.’  He  however  managed  tc 
take,  and  pay  for  by  instalments,  100  acres  of  land,  then 


116 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


covered  with  forest.  Hiring  himself  to  a  farmer  at  some 
distance,  he  was  enabled  to  purchase  a  stock  of  provisions 
and  an  axe  ;  and  thus  provided,  he  resolutely  faced  the 
wilderness,  and  there  erected  a  shanty  for  himself  and  his 
little  family.  Like  others  similarly  circumstanced,  he  then 
commenced  to  hew  down  the  trees  that  overshadowed  his 
primitive  dwelling.  Having  effected  a  certain  amount  of 
clearing,  he  would  again  seek  for  such  employment  as 
enabled  him  to  renew  his  stock  of  provisions  ;  and  thus 
alternately  working  abroad  for  others  and  at  home  for 
himself,  this  sturdy  seftler  gradually  succeeded  in  making 
a  home  for  his  now  increasing  family.  His  first  crop  of 
wheat,  raised  from  the  small  patch  which  he  had  then 
cleared,  he  was  compelled  to  carry  on  his  back  to  the 
nearest  mill,  to  be  ground  into  flour.  The  distance  was 
thirty  miles — not  of  road  or  river,  but  through  the  dense 
forest,  at  that  time  but  rarely  intersected  by  open  paths. 
Returning  on  one  occasion  with  the  customary  bag  of  flour 
on  his  back,  the  night  overtook  him  while  he  was  still  far 
away  from  home.  Blindly  stumbling  about  in  every  direc¬ 
tion,  he  fell,  and,  perhaps  owing  as  much  to  the  burden  he 
carried  as  to  the  manner  in  which  he  came  to  the  ground, 
broke  his  leg.  Here  was  indeed  a  sad  position ! — in  the 
midst  of  a  lonely  forest  infested  with  wolves,  away  from  all 
human  assistance,  and  writhing  in  exquisite  pain.  There  he 
lay  for  the  whole  night,  moaning  helplessly  in  agony  of  mind 
and  body,  as  he  thought  of  his  young  wife  and  his  little 
children,  far  away  from  friendly  assistance,  and  of  the  wild 
terror  which  his  unaccountable  absence  would  be  sure  to 
occasion.  He  was  fortunately  discovered  next  morning  by 
a  settler,  who  was  attracted  by  his  cries  of  distress,  and  who 
assisted  in  conveying  him  to  his  almost  distracted  family. 
For  some  months  he  lay  helpless  in  his  cabin,  full  of 
anxiety  as  well  as  pain  ;  but  no  sooner  was  he  once  more 
able  to  be  on  his  legs  than  he  was  again  at  work.  That 
man  never  ceased  his  hard  toil  till  he  had  cleared 


A  LONG  JOURNEY  TO  MASS. 


117 


liis  first  lot,  of  100  acres,  and  added  time  by  time  to  his 
property ;  and  he  is  this  day  the  possessor  of  900  acres 
of  as  good  land  as  any  in  Canada,  as  well  as  the  owner  of 
saw-mills  and  grist-mills,  in  which  the  inhabitants  of  the 
neighbourhood  may  grind  their  corn.  Toronto  was  over 
twenty  miles  distant  from  his  log  cabin,  and  when  he  first 
settled  in  the  bush  it  was  only  at  rare  intervals  that  he 
had  a  visit  from  the  priest.  It  was  his  custom  to  go  to  the 
city  as  often  as  he  could,  to  perform  his  religious  duties ; 
and  as,  for  the  first  years  of  his  settler’s  life,  he  could  not 
afford  to  purchase  a  horse,  he  was  compelled  to  walk  the 
whole  of  the  way.  When  he  brought  one  of  his  children 
with  him  to  Mass,  which  it  was  his  habit  to  do,  in  order, 
as  he  said,  to  make  a  strong  religious  impression  on  their 
youthful  minds,  he  would  divide  the  journey  into  two 
stages,  and  making  the  house  of  a  friend  his  resting-place 
for  the  Saturday  night,  would  set  out  at  break  of  day  on 
Sunday  morning,  holding  his  boy  by  the  hand,  or  bearing 
him  on  his  back.  He  would  thus  arrive  some  time  before 
Mass  commenced,  so  as  to  prepare  for  Communion,  which 
he  received  with  edifying  piety ;  and  after  a  brief  rest  and 
refreshment  he  would  face  towards  his  friend’s  house,  his 
resting-place  for  the  night.  Nor  was  the  good  Irish  father 
disappointed  in  his  hopes  of  his  children,  all  of  whom  grew 
up  strong  in  the  faith.  Three  of  his  sons  received  a  col¬ 
legiate  education,  and  are  now  amongst  the  most  respected 
members  of  the  society  in  which  they  creditably  move. 

Father  Gordon  spent  half  his  time  in  the  saddle ;  and 
though  he  spared  neither  himself  nor  his  horse — but 
himself  much  less  than  his  horse — it  was  with  the  utmost 
difficulty  that  he  could  visit  the  more  distant  portions  of 
his  mission  oftener  than  twice  or  thrice  a  year.  Many  a 
time  did  the  active  missionary  lose  his  way  in  the  midst  of 
the  woods,  and  after  hours  of  weary  riding  find  himself,  in 
the  dusk  of  the  evening,  in  the  very  same  spot  from  which 
he  set  out  in  the  morning !  His  safest  plan  was  1  o  leave 


I 


118 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


liimself  to  the  discretion  of  his  trusty  companion,  that 
rarely  failed  him;  thus  when  puzzled  as  to  the  path,  or 
rather  track,  he  would  throw  the  bridle  on  his  horse’s  neck, 
and  at  the  end  of  some  time  he  was  sure  to  be  brought  up 
before  a  cottage  door,  which  was  generally  opened  to  him 
in  welcome,  for  even  those  not  of  his  faith  respected  the 
zealous  ‘  Irish  minister.’  There  was,  however,  one  occasion 
when  his  reception  was  of  a  very  different  nature  ;  and  as 
the  circumstances  of  the  case  are  remarkable,  it  deserves 
to  be  told.  I  may  say  that  I  heard  it  the  first  time  in 
Toronto  from  a  warm  admirer  of  the  fine  old  priest,  and 
afterwards  in  Hamilton  from  his  own  lips. 

Returning  to  Toronto  after  a  hard  day’s  work,  Father 
Gordon  was  about  entering  his  modest  residence,  to  obtain 
some  necessary  refreshment,  when  a  countryman  rode  up 
to  the  door.  He  proved  to  be  an  Irishman  from  the  town¬ 
ship  of  Tecumsetli,  in  the  county  of  Simcoe,  about  forty 
miles  from  Toronto.  ‘  Father,  I’m  glad  to  meet  you ;  I 
want  you  to  come  with  me  to  near  my  place,  where  there’s 
a  man  dying,  and  there’s  not  a  moment  to  be  lost.’  This 
was  agreeable  news  for  the  poor  priest,  who  certainly  had 
had  his  fair  share  of  the  saddle  for  that  day.  ‘Who  is 
the  sick  man  ?  ’  he  asked.  ‘  Oh,  he’s  one  Marshall,  from 
the  North — a  Protestant,  and  all  his  people  the  same — 
and  he  is  asking  for  the  priest.  I’m  a  neighbour  of  his, 
and  I  heard  it  from  one  of  his  sons,  and  I  thought  I 
couldn’t  do  better  than  come  for  your  reverence ;  and  so 
here  I  am,  just  in  time,  thank  God.’  ‘  Very  well,’  said  the 
priest,  ‘  I  will  take  a  cup  of  tea,  borrow  a  fresh  horse,  and 
be  off  without  delay.  Come  in  and  join  me,  and  I  will  be 
ready  to  start  at  once.’  In  half  an  hour  after  the  two 
horsemen  rode  from  the  door  on  their  journey  through  the 
forest,  and  it  was  not  until  late  at  night  that,  thoroughly 
tired,  they  pulled  up  before  the  house  of  the  sick  man,  who 
was  said  to  be  at  the  point  of  death.  Father  Gordon  dis¬ 
mounted,  and  knocked  at  the  door,  which  was  immediately 


A  STORY  STRANGE  BUT  TRUE. 


119 


opened  by  an  elderly  woman,  at  whose  back  stood  two 
young  men.  ‘  What  do  you  want  here,  at  this  hour  of  the 
night  ?  ’  demanded  the  woman.  *  Is  there  not  a  sick  man 
in  the  house  ?  ’  inquired  the  priest.  ‘  There  is — my  husband 
— he  is  dying.’  ‘Well,  I  was  sent  for  to  see  him — I  am 
the  priest.’  ‘  Priest !  ’  shrieked  the  woman,  as  if  the  Evil 
One  stood  revealed  before  her.  ‘  Yes  ;  I  am  the  priest, 
come  all  the  way  from  Toronto  to  see  him,  as  he  wished 
me  to  do,’  was  the  quiet  rejoinder.  ‘Then  you  may  go  as 
you  came,  for  no  priest  will  cross  this  threshold,  if  I  can 
help  it,  no  matter  who  wants  to  see  him ;’  and  saying  this, 
the  mistress  of  the  house  shut  the  door  on  Father  Gordon 
and  his  guide,  who  was  overwhelmed  with  confusion  at  the 
untoward  result.  ‘  To  think  that  I  should  bring  your 
reverence  all  this  distance,  and  only  to  have  the  door  shut 
in  your  face  !  I  can’t  forgive  myself  ;  but  I  did  it  for  the 
best.’  ‘  To  be  sure  you  did,  man — you  did  your  duty,  no 
more  ;  and  I  respect  you  for  it.  But,’  added  the  priest,  ‘  I 
must  be  turning  my  horse’s  head  homewards.’  ‘  No,  your 
reverence,  not  a  step  you’ll  go  back  this  blessed  night,  if 
my  name  is  Spillane*  ;  you’ll  stop  at  my  house — ’tis  only  a 
mile  off — and  we’ll  try  and  make  you  as  comfortable  as 
we  can.  It  will  be  time  enough  to  think  of  returning 
to-morrow.’  ‘  Be  it  so,  in  God’s  name,’  said  Father  Gor¬ 
don.  They  soon  reached  the  house,  where  a  good  supper 
and  a  clean  bed  made  some  amends  for  the  long  ride  and 
the  keen  disappointment.  The  tired  missionary  was  soon 
in  a  deep  slumber,  in  which  perhaps  he  may  have  beheld 
again  the  group  in  the  doorway,  lit  up  by  the  flickering 
candle,  and  heard  the  words,  ‘  No  priest  will  cross  this 
threshold  if  I  can  help  it,’  when  he  was  suddenly  awakened 
by  a  great  noise  or  clatter  in  the  house.  At  that  moment 
his  host  entered  the  room.  ‘  What  is  the  matter,  Spillane  ?  ’ 
‘  Why,  then,  your  reverence,  it  is  a  strange  matter — the 
strangest  matter  I  ever  heard  of; — young  Marshall  has 
brought  his  father  to  you,  as  you  wouldn’t  be  allowed  to 
*Spillane  or  Sullivan  ;  T  am  not  certain  which. 


.120 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


come  to  liim,’  replied  the  host.  ‘  You  jest,  man  ;  ’tis  impos¬ 
sible,’  said  the  priest,  in  his  first  impulse  of  astonish¬ 
ment.  ‘Faith,  then,  ’tis  no  jest  at  all,  your  reverence, 
but  the  truth,  as  I’m  a  sinner,  and  that’s  no  lie,  any  way,’ 
said  Spillane.  It  was  the  literal  truth.  When  the  dying 
man  heard  how  the  priest  had  been  denied  admission,  and 
driven  from  his  door,  he  was  intensely  afflicted  ;  but  he  in 
vain  sought  to  move  the  stern  obduracy  of  his  wife.  ‘  Not 
one  belonging  to  me  ever  disgraced  himself  by  turning 
Papist,  and  you  shan’t  be  the  one  to  commence.’  The 
poor  woman  believed  she  was  only  doing  her  duty,  and  in 
this  tranquillising  conviction  she  soon  forgot  her  troubles 
in  sleep.  But  the  dying  man  was  inconsolable,  and  he 
moaned  and  wept  in  a  manner  to  touch  the  heart  of  one 
of  his  sons,  to  whom  he  addressed  the  most  earnest  en¬ 
treaties  that  he  might  be  allowed  to  die  as  he  wished  to 
die.  Moved  alike  by  the  tears  and  importunities  of  his 
father,  the  son  at  length  yielded.  But  what  was  to  be 
done  ?  The  priest  could  not  enter  the  house — his  mother 
would  not  allow  that  ;  how  then  could  his  father’s  wish  be 
accomplished?  There  wTas  only  one  way  of  doing  it,  and 
that  was  quickly  resolved  upon  and  adopted.  Carefully 
wrapping  the  dying  man  in  the  clothes  in  which  he  lay, 
the  son  raised  him  gently  on  his  back,  and,  stealing  softly 
with  his  precious  burden,  he  crossed  the  threshold  with 
noiseless  step,  and  bore  it  a  mile  through  the  dark  forest 
to  the  house  in  which  the  priest  found  shelter  for  the 
night,  and  there  laid  it  down  in  safety.  Whether  it  were 
that  Nature  rallied  her  failing  resources,  or  that  the  spirit 
rose  superior  to  the  frailty  of  the  body,  it  may  be  difficult 
to  say  ;  but  the  father  preserved  strength  enough  to  be 
received  into  the  church,  and  prepared  for  death,  and  to  be 
brought  back  to  his  own  home,  in  which  he  shortly  after 
breathed  his  last.  For  several  years,  or  as  long  as  his 
mother  lived,  the  son  did  not  separate  from  her  communion  ; 
but  he  afterwards  became  a  Catholic,  and  is  now  the  wealthy 


TIIE  LAST  GRAIN  OF  TEA. 


121 


head  of  a  large  Catholic  family,  all  good  and  religious,  and 
full  of  worldly  prosperity. 

Father  Gordon  tells  many  anecdotes  of  his  missionary 
life  among  his  Irish  flock  ;  and  however  apparently  trivial 
some  of  them  may  appear,  they  afford  glimpses  of  the 
early  condition  of  the  settlers  in  the  wilderness.  Drenched 
to  the  skin  one  day  in  spring,  he  was  compelled  to  seek 
shelter  in  a  shanty  ;  but  such  was  the  state  of  that  dwelling 
that  it  afforded  a  friendly  welcome  to  the  rain,  which 
entered  wherever  it  pleased  through  the  roof ;  and  as  the 
priest  lay  on  the  bed,  composed  of  two  logs  placed  in  a 
corner,  while  his  clothes  were  being  dried  at  the  fire,  he 
was  amused  at  witnessing  the  enjoyment  of  a  brood  of 
young  ducks  that  were  disporting  themselves  in  a  stream 
that  ran  through  the  cabin. 

It  was  in  a  short  time  after  that  he  rode  up  to  the 
door  of  Mrs.  Macnamara,  ‘all  the  way  from  the  county 
of  Cork/  ‘Well,  Mrs.  Mac,  have  you  anything  for  a  poor 
traveller  ?  ’  ‘  ’Deed,  then,  your  reverence,  there’s  a  hearty 

welcome,  and  you  know  that ;  and  I  have  a  grain  of  tea, 
and  the  makings  of  a  cake — and  sure  tlie’re  yours  with  a 
heart  and  a  half,  and  so  they  would  if  they  -were  ten  times 
as  much,’  said  Mrs.  Mac.  The  good  woman  at  once  set 
about  making  the  cake,  which  was  soon  in  a  forward  state 
of  preparation,  and  then,  with  much  solemnity,  she  pro¬ 
ceeded  to  ‘make  the  tea,’ which,  in  order  to  ‘draw’  it  in 
the  most  scientific  manner,  she  placed  in  its  little  black 
pot  on  a  corner  of  the  fire,  away  from  the  blaze.  Mrs. 
Mac’s  stock  of  candles  had  long  been  exhausted,  and  she 
was  obliged  to  be  content  with  the  light  from  the  hearth ; 
but  Father  Gordon  had  to  ‘pay  his  debt  to  the  Pope,’  and, 
in  order  to  read  his  closely-printed  breviary,  he  was  con¬ 
stantly  poking  the  fire  with  the  end  of  a  stick.  ‘Take  care 
of  the  teapot,  Father  Gordon,  dear — take  care  of  it,  for  your 
life !  ’  remonstrated  the  good  woman,  as  she  observed  the 
reckless  vigour  with  which  the  priest  used  the  improvised 


122 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


poker.  ‘No  fear,  ma’am — no  fear,  ma’am,’  lie  invariably  re¬ 
plied.  But  there  was  every  reason  to  fear,  as  the  result 
proved  ;  for,  in  one  desperate  effort  to  shed  light  on  the 
small  print,  the  priest  brought  down  the  entire  superstruc¬ 
ture,  and  with  it  the  cherished  teapot,  which  rolled,  empty 
and  spoutless,  on  the  floor.  Here  was  a  disaster!  The 
poor  woman  clapped  her  hands,  as  she  cried,  ‘Oh,  Father 
Gordon,  jewel!  what  did  you  do?  You  broke  my  teapot, 
that  I  brought  from  Ireland,  every  step  of  the  way,  and 
I  so  fond  of  it !  But,  Father  dear,  ’tis  worse  for  you,  foT 
there  isn’t  another  grain  of  tea  in  the  house — and  what 
will  you  do?  Oh  dear!  oh  dear!’  Father  Gordon  had, 
as  penance  for  his  involuntary  offence,  to  wash  down  the 
cake  with  the  water  of  a  neighbouring  spring. 

No  one  was  more  surprised  at  the  changes  wrought  in 
comparatively  a  few  years  after,  than  was  Father  Gordon, 
who  witnessed  the  infancy  of  the  Irish  settlements  of  the 
county  of  Simcoe. 

c  My  dear  sir,’  said  he,  ‘  I  could  scarcely  credit  my  eye¬ 
sight,  it  was  all  so  wonderful — like  a  dream.  Fine  roads, 
and  splendid  farms,  and  grand  mansions,  and  horses  and 
carriages,  and  noble  churches  with  organs  and  peals  of 
bells,  and  schools — yes,  my  dear  sir,  and  ladies  and  gentle¬ 
men,  the  aristocracy  of  the  country!  What  a  difference 
between  what  I  beheld  on  my  last  visit,  and  what  I 
remember  when  I  saw  the  young  ducks  in  the  stream 
running  through  the  cabin  floor,  and  when  poor  Mrs.  Mac’s 
last  grain  of  tea  was  lost  in  the  ashes.  •  Dear,  dear !  what 
a  wonderful  change !  God  has  been  very  merciful  to  our 
poor  people.  I  never,’  continued  the  good  priest,  who 
could  speak  with  authority  as  to  his  countrymen,  whom 
during  his  long  life  he  loved  and  served  with  all  the  zeal 
and  earnestness  of  his  nature — ‘I  never  knew  one  of  them 
that  did  not  succeed,  provided  he  was  sober  and  well- 
conducted.  Drink,  sir,  drink  is  the  great  failing  of  our 
race  ;  and  if  they  had  a  hundred  enemies,  that’s  the  worst 


FATHER  GORDON  ON  THE  iRiSIL 


123 


of  all.  But,  tliank  God,  on  the  whole,  our  people  are  good 
and  religious,  and  every  day  advancing.  It  is  a  great 
change  from  what  they  were  in  the  old  country,  and  a 
greater  change  from  what  I  remember  they  were  thirty 
years  ago  in  this/ 

To  my  suggestion  that  he  had  had  his  own  share  of  toil 
in  those  distant  days,  he  replied  :  ‘  "Well,  my  dear  sir,  no 
doubt  I  had  many  a  hard  ride  through  the  forest,  and  I 
often  had  to  depend  on  my  poor  horse,  as  my  heavy  eyelids 
closed  while  I  sat  in  the  saddle,  overpowered  with  fatigue 
and  want  of  sleep.  But  no  matter  what  labour  I  had  to 
undergo,  I  always  received  my  reward  in  the  faith  and  love 
of  the  people — their  delight  at  seeing  their  priest,  and 
hearing  his  voice — why,  sir,  it  would  raise  any  man’s 
spirits.  And  how  they  kept  the  faith ! — it  was  surprising. 
For  years  some  would  not  see  a  priest  ;  but  still  the  faith 
was  there  in  the.  mother’s  heart,  and  she  would  teach  it  to 
her  children.  "VVe  have  lost  some,  for  there  were  sheep 
without  shepherds  ;  but  that  we  did  not  lose  more,  and 
that  we  saved  so  many  in  times  long  gone  by,  is  only  to  be 
attributed  to  the  mercy  of  God,  and  the  tenacity  with 
which  the  Irish  cling  to  their  faith.  Oh,  sir,  their  devotion, 
and  their  affection,  and  their  gratitude,  cheered  me  many 
a  time,  and  made  me  forget  fatigue  and  trouble  of  every 
kind.  God  bless  them !  they  are  a  good  people.’ 

These  were  almost  the  last  words  I  heard  from  the  lips 
of  that  true-hearted  Irish  priest,  for  it  was  of  his  people  ho 
loved  to  speak.  Father  Gordon  has  lived  to  see  his  church 
thoroughly  organised,  divided  into  several  dioceses,  each 
diocese  having  an  efficient  staff  of  clergymen,  with  numer¬ 
ous  institutions,  educational  and  charitable,  under  the  care 
of  the  religious  orders.  Of  the  bishops,  four  are  Irish, 
and  about  one  hundred  of  the  clergy  are  either  of  Irish 
birth  or  descent.  The  religious  orders  also  owre  much  of 
their  strength  to  the  same  great  national  well-spring  of 
the  faith. 


121 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


Woolfe  Island — Jimmy  Cuffe — A  Successful  Irishman — Simple 
Pat  as  an  Agriculturist — The  Land  Question  in  Canada — Wise 
Policy  of  the  Canadian  Parliament — Happy  Results  of  a  Wise 
Policy. 


HERE  is  an  island  in  the  St.  Lawrence,  forming  the 


JL  two  channels,  the  English  and  the  American,,  through 
which  the  majestic  river  flows  from  Lake  Ontario  to  the  sea. 
Woolfe  Island — for  that  is  the  name  by  which  it  is  known — 
is  several  miles  in  length,  and  about  half  as  many  broad. 
It  is  principally  occupied  by  Irish  Catholics,  who  settled 
upon  it  at  different  periods,  not  very  remote.  For  a  time 
the  land  w~as  held  partly  by  lease,  and  for  a  term  of  twenty- 
one  years — a  description  of  tenure  altogether  exceptional 
in  a  country  in  which  freehold  or  fee-simple,  in  other  words, 
absolute  ownership,  is  almost  universal. 

In  other  countries  a  lease  for  twenty-one  years  might  be 
regarded  with  favour,  and  under  certain  circumstances 
would  be  considered  a  security  for  mere  outlay  in  cultiva¬ 
tion.  It  is  so  in  Scotland  ;  but  in  America,  where  absolute 
and  undisputed  ownership  is  the  rule,  a  tenure  of  this 
limited  nature  is  rather  a  discouragement  than  a  stimulus 
to  exertion.  And  it  may  be  remarked,  that  by  proprietors 
of  large  tracts  of  land,  who  desire  to  see  them  occupied  and 
cultivated,  letting  by  lease  is  not  much  approved  of  ;  they 
prefer  to  sell  it  in  lots,  on  such  terms  as  may  suit  both 
parties,  and  possibly  enable  the  person  who  sells  to  turn 
the  purchase-money  to  other  purposes.  And  when  land 
falls  into  the  possession  of  creditor  or  mortgagee,  the  new 
owner  generally  finds  it  more  convenient  and  profitable  to 


WOOLFE  ISLAND. 


125 


get  rid  of  it  by  sale  than  to  let  it  by  lease  of  whatever 
term,  and  tlins  assume  the  responsibility  and  incur  the  risk 
incidental  to  the  position  of  a  landlord.  The  genius  of 
the  people,  the  very  instinct  of  the  community,  is  in  favour 
of  entire  and  unrestricted  ownership,  through  which  alone 
the  forests  have  been  turned  into  fields  of  grain  and  pas¬ 
ture,  and  America  has  been  civilised  and  peopled. 

The  proprietor  of  a  vast  property  on  Woolfe  Island  de¬ 
termined  to  announce  it  for  sale  ;  and  no  sooner  did  ho 
do  so,  than  the  Irish  tenants  put  forth  the  most  extraordi¬ 
nary  energy,  in  order  to  become  the  owners  of  their  farms. 
It  seemed  as  if  new  life  had  been  infused  into  them  by 
the  hope  of  possessing  as  proprietors  the  land  they  rented 
as  tenants  ;  and  such  was  the  success  of  their  exertions, 
that  they,  or  the  great  majority  of  them,  were  enabled  to 
purchase  their  lots. 

As  the  island,  with  the  exception  of  such  portions  of  it  as 
had  been  cleared,  was  covered  with  forest,  like  most  of  the 
land  of  Canada,  the  settlers  of  Woolfe  Island  had  to  un¬ 
dergo  the  ordinary  hardships  incidental  to  all  similar 
efforts ;  but  as  they  were  not  many  miles  from  a  fine  town 
and  a  good  market,  they  possessed  advantages  not  usual 
with  the  genuine  pioneer  of  civilisation,  who  buries  him¬ 
self  in  the  depths  of  the  woods,  and  is  himself  the  author  of 
everything  that  follows.  Still  the  advantages  of  the  thriv¬ 
ing  town  and  the  unfailing  market  were  not  unattended 
with  countervailing  risk  ;  for  the  nearness  of  the  town 
offered  to  the  settlers  of  the  island  temptations  which 
many  lacked  the  necessary  fortitude  to  resist.  It  frequently 
occurred  that  the  profits  of  a  good  season  were  sacrificed 
to  the  fascinations  of  boon-companionship,  and  the  indul¬ 
gence  of  a  passion  especially  fatal  to  the  Irishman.  Hie 
evil  was  assuming  alarming  proportions,  when,  some  dozen 
years  since,  an  Irish  priest — the  Rev.  Mr.  Foley — resolved 
to  grapple  with  it ;  and  so  powerfully  and  persuasively  did 
ho  plead  the  cause  of  prudence  and  sobriety,  so  strenuously 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


1?6 

did  lie  wrestle  with  the  veteran  drinkers — the  c  hard  cases,’ 
as  they  were  called — and  such  was  his  influence  with  the 
young,  that  he  succeeded  in  a  short  time  in  enrolling  800 
male  residents,  of  all  ages,  from  the  vigorous  stripling  t.n 
the  grey-liaired  grandsire,  in  the  ranks  of  temperance. 
The  result  was  magical.  Soon  there  was  not  in  all  Canada 
a  more  prosperous  or  progressive  settlement  than  that  of 
Woolf  e  Island.  The  good  priest  died  in  the  midst  of  his 
labours,  and,  as  was  customary,  would  have  been  buried  in 
the  Cathedral  of  Kingston  ;  but  so  beloved  was  he  by  the 
people  to  whom  he  had  been  father  and  pastor,  that  they 
would  not  permit  his  honoured  remains  to  be  removed 
from  the  island  ;  and  the  grave  in  which  they  rest  is  re¬ 
garded  with  veneration  by  those  who  remember  his  holy 
life,  and  the  zeal  with  which  he  watched  over  the  temporal 
interests  as  well  as  the  spiritual  welfare  of  his  flock.  The 
islanders  remain  faithful  to  the  advice  of  their  pastor,  and 
as  a  consequence  certain  to  follow  from  the  avoidance  of 
a  fruitful  cause  of  danger,  they  are  happy  and  contented, 
and  every  year  they  are  advancing  in  prosperity.  The 
case  of  one  of  these  settlers  will  illustrate  that  of  many. 

It  is  now  about  seventeen  years  since  a  little  Irishman 
from  Roscommon,  named  James  Cuffee,  settled  in  the  island. 
Low-sized,  but  broad-shouldered,  well-knit  and  vigorous 
as  a  ‘four  year  old,’  Jimmy  Cuffee,  like  thousands  of  his 
race  in  America,  possessed  only  that  species  of  capital 
which  may  be  easily  carried  across  ocean  and  over  moun¬ 
tain — which  rust  cannot  consume  nor  moth  devour,  but 
which,  although  the  wonder-worker  of  civilisation,  is  often 
blindly  despised  by  those  who  will  alone  believe  in  bullion 
or  bank  notes  ;  it  consisted  of  his  strong  pair  of  arms  and 
his  brave  heart.  Literally,  he  had  not  a  penny  in  his 
pocket  ;  nor  indeed — at  that  time  at  least — could  he  ‘  take 
a  shine  ’  out  of  his  reading  and  writing.  But  so  resolutely 
did  the  little  Connaught  man — in  whose  composition,  it  may 
be  remarked,  there  was  not  the  faintest  suspicion  of  the 


JIMMY  CUFFE,  TIIE  ROSCOMMON  BOY. 


127 


Anglo-Saxon — labour  at  his  calling,  ‘morning  and  night, 
early  and  late/  that  he  rapidly  became  a  thriving  man ; 
and  Jimmy  Cuffe  is  now  the  proprietor  in  fee-simple  of 
800  acres  of  rich  land,  which  it  would  be  difficult  to  match 
in  Roscommon ;  with  a  fine  house,  a  stable  full  of  good 
horses,  spacious  barns,  cattle  and  stock  of  every  kind — in 
a  word,  everything  that  the  heart  of  any  rational  Irishman 
could  desire.  He  drives  his  family  to  church  in  a  spring 
waggon,  drawn  by  a  pair  of  good  horses,  *  as  grand  as  the 
Lord  Mayor  of  London,  or  as  any  real  gentleman  in  the 
ould  country.’  I  happened  to  be  in  Kingston  the  day 
Jimmy  Cuffe  came  in  to  take  up  the  bill  on  which  he  had 
raised  the  purchase-money  for  his  latest  acquisition  of  200 
acres.  It  was  rather  a  large  sum,  but  the  produce  of  his 
harvest  enabled  him  to  do  so  without  embarrassment.  And 
Jimmy’s  sharp  grey  eye  glistened,  as  he  told  how  he  had 
got  along,  and  succeeded  not  only  in  ‘making  a  man  of 
himself,  thank  God,’  but — what  pleased  him  quite  as  much 
- — in  buying  out  the  old  settlers — a  class  rather  inclined  to 
think  little  of  what  the  Jimmy  Cuffes  can  do.  It  is  much 
to  be  doubted  if  Jimmy  Cuffe  would  change  places  with  a 
lord  in  the  old  country.  The  lord,  as  is  usually  the  case, 
owes  his  position  to  his  ancestors — Jimmy  Cuffe,  under 
Providence,  owes  everything  to  his  industry,  energy,  and 
self-denial.  Possibly,  in  the  estimation  of  some  people, 
the  balance  of  merit  may  be  in  favour  of  the  sturdy  settler 
from  Roscommon.  Thankfully  be  it  said,  there  are  many 
Jimmy  Cuffes  in  America. 

Cases  of  a  somewhat  similar  nature  might  be  multiplied 
to  any  extent,  all  illustrative  of  the  manly  vigour  of  the 
Irish  race,  and  of  what  great  things  they  are  capable 
when  they  have  a  fair  field  for  their  energies. 

Living  near  a  thriving  city  in  Western  Canada,  is  a  hale 
and  vigorous  Irishman,  well  advanced  in  years,  who,  as  a 
day  labourer,  broke  stones  on  the  public  road  not  far  from 
the  very  spot  on  which  stands  his  splendid  residence,  one 


128 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


of  the  most  elegant  in  the  country.  Like  a  wise  man,  he 
took  the  first  work  that  offered,  and  it  prospered  with  him. 
He  rejoices  in  an  unmistakable  Irish  name,  smacking  of 
the  ‘  ould  ancient  kings ;  ’  and  there  is  not  in  all  Canada  a 
stauncher  adherent  to  the  ancient  faith.  When  he  came 
out  to  America — more  than  thirty  years  ago — a  priest  was 
rarely  to  be  seen  near  where  he  settled,  and  it  was  only  by 
great  effort,  at  no  small  sacrifice  of  time  and  labour,  that 
he  could  avail  himself  of  the  consolations  of  religion ;  but 
he  was  determined  that,  above  all  things,  he  would  trans¬ 
mit  to  his  children  the  precious  deposit  which  he  had 
himself  received  from  his  simple  but  pious  parents.  Be¬ 
tween  the  Saturday  evening,  when  his  week’s  work  was 
over,  and  the  Monday  morning,  when  another  week  of 
labour  commenced,  this  devoted  Catholic  would  constantly 
walk  a  distance  of  between  forty  and  fifty  miles,  to  attend 
Mass  and  perform  the  duties  enjoined  by  his  church.  And 
when  his  children  grew  in  strength,  he  would  make  them 
the  companions  of  his  journey.  Not  a  few  of  this  good 
man’s  descendants  have  abandoned  a  home  of  luxury  to 
devote  themselves  to  a  religious  life,  and  are  now  diffusing 
among  the  youth  of  their  own  race  and  faith  the  lessons  of 
piety  which  they  learned  from  the  lips  of  an  honoured 
parent.  Men  of  his  stamp  are  the  glory  of  their  country. 

A  recent  striking  instance  of  progress  made  by  the  Irish 
may  be  mentioned.  The  Bishop  of  Kingston — Dr.  Horan — 
in  visiting  a  settlement,  of  which  the  first  tree  had  been 
cut  only  five  years  before,  was  received  by  one  hundred  of 
the  settlers,  each  driving  his  own  waggon  and  pair  of  horses. 
Preceded  by  a  green  banner,  and  a  band  of  music  obtained 
from  a  neighbouring  town,  these  sturdy  Celts  conducted 
their  good  bishop  in  triumph  into  the  heart  of  their  pros¬ 
perous  settlement.  That  was  a  day  of  well-earned  jubilee. 

In  fully  twenty  of  the  counties  of  Upper  or  Western 
Canada  there  are  thriving  settlements  either  exclusively  or 
principally  occupied  by  Irish  Catholics;  while  the  Catholic 


SIMPLE  PAT  AS  AN  AGRICULTURIST. 


129 


Irish  are  to  be  found  in  every  direction,  often  in  the  midst 
of  Protestant  settlements,  whether  Irish,  Scotch,  or 
English. 

Something  may  here  be  said  of  the  Irish  agriculturist, 
as  compared  with  his  brethren  from  the  sister  kingdoms. 
As  may  be  .supposed,  by  those  who  know  anything  of  the 
state  of  things  in  different  parts  of  the  United  Kingdom, 
the  Scotch  and  English  farmers  who  settle  in  America 
bring  with  them — have  brought  with  them — besides  more  or 
less  capital  in  money,  a  knowledge  and  skill  not  possessed 
by  those  who  emigrated  from  Ireland.  It  must  be  admit¬ 
ted  that  in  Great  Britain  the  science  of  agriculture  has 
advanced  to  a  degree  of  perfection  to  which,  even  under  the 
most  favourable  circumstances,  Ireland  cannot  aspire  for 
many  years  yet  to  come.  Thus  it  necessarily  follows  that 
while  the  Irishman  is  in  no  way  inferior  to  the  Englishman 
or  Scotchman  in  industry  or  energy,  capacity  for  labour  or 
power  of  endurance,  he  is  so  in  theoretical  knowledge,  and 
the  management  of  land  on  the  principles  of  ‘  high  farming.’ 
Considering  the  relative  condition  of  the  three  countries, 
this  is  what  may  be  looked  for.  But  the  Irishman,  even 
though  he  may  not  be  able  to  write  his  name,  is  wonder¬ 
fully  shrewd  and  observant ;  and  before  his  self-complacent 
neighbour  imagines  that  simple  Pat  has  even  perceived 
what  he  was  about,  simple  Pat  has  borrowed  his  improve¬ 
ment,  and  actually  made  his  own  of  it.  It  is  amusing  to 
hear  a  poor  fellow,  who  had  little  inducement  for  enter¬ 
prise  in  his  own  country,  dealing  in  the  most  daring- 
manner  with  scientific  terms,  picked  up  from  his  Lothian 
or  Yorkshire  neighbour,  and  calling  things  by  names  that 
would  puzzle  a  Liebig.  But  still  there  is  no  mistake  in 
his  application  of  the  principle ;  for  though  he  makes  a 
fearful  hash  of  the  name,  simple  Pat  has  caught  fast  hold 
of  the  thing,  as  witness  the  appearance  of  his  land  and  the 
abundance  of  his  crops.  It  occasionally  happens  that 
townships  belonging  to  the  three  nationalities  adjoin  ;  and 


130 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


wherever  this  is  the  case,  the  result  is  a  healthful  rivalry, 
productive  of  general  advantage.  In  the  new  county  of 
Victoria,  in  Central  Canada,  there  is  an  instance  of  this 
propinquity.  Three  townships,  almost  exclusively  belong¬ 
ing  to  English,  Scotch,  and  Irish  settlers,  lie  alongside 
each  other ;  and  between  the  three  there  exists  a  spirit  of 
emulation,  keen  but  amicable,  as  to  which  produces  the 
largest  crops,  and  cultivates  the  land  in  the  most  skilful 
manner.  The  result  is  told  by  an  eminent  Irishman,  a  man 
much  respected  in  his  district,  and  whose  most  cherished 
ambition  is  to  see  his  countrymen  raise  themselves  higher 
in  the  estimation  of  the  world  by  the  exercise  of  their 
great  natural  gifts  : — ‘  I  am  happy  and  proud  to  say  that 
‘our  countrymen  have  proved  themselves  to  be  equal  in 
‘  every  respect  to  those  from  the  sister  kingdoms.  To  my 
‘  mind,  the  Irish  township,  according  to  its  numbers,  pro- 

*  duces  the  largest  crops.’  And  he  adds,  ‘  Rely  on  it,  if  your 

*  countrymen  at  home  had  the  same  freedom  of  action,  the 
£  same  sense  of  security  and  certainty  of  reward,  that  they 
‘have  in  our  free  Canada,  they  would  enjoy  in  their  own 
‘  country  the  same  prosperity  which  they  enjoy  here.’ 

To  me,  the  proposition  seems  consistent  with  reason  and 
common  sense,  though  fanatical  sticklers  for  imaginary 
‘  rights  of  property  ’  may  regard  it  as  little  better  than  rank 
blasphemy. 

It  will  be  interesting  to  see  how  the  Canadian  Parlia¬ 
ment  dealt,  not  long  since,  with  the  Land  Question  of  the 
Lower  Province.  Fortunately  for  the  public  welfare, 
the  earnest  attention  of  the  Canadian  Legislature  was 
directed  to  the  tenure  by  which  the  cultivators  occupied 
the  soil,  and  especially  to  the  obligations  and  restrictions 
imposed  by  its  conditions  upon  that  most  important  class 
of  the  community ;  and  in  1861  an  Act  was  passed,  which 
has  had,  and  must  continue  to  have,  a  marked  influence 
on  the  prosperity  of  the  province. 

The  land  had  been  originally  parcelled  out  among  a 


WISE  POLICY  OF  THE  CANADIAN  PARLIAMENT. 


number  of  great  proprietors,  who  derived  their  vast  estates 
directly  from  the  Kings  of  France.  Without  entering  into 
the  history  of  these  grants,  or  the  manner  in  which  the 
land  was  gradually  occupied  by  the  cultivators,  who  came 
as  settlers,  it  is  sufficient  to  state  that  the  evils  with  which 
the  Legislature  had  to  deal  did  not  arise  so  much  from  the 
burden  of  the  rent,  or  the  duration  of  the  tenure,  as  from 
the  ‘  rights  ’  which  the  proprietors  reserved  to  themselves. 
The  rent  wras  so  small  as  to  be  merely  nominal,  in  fact  a 
few  halfpence  per  acre  ;  but  the  ‘rights’ — which  restricted 
the  liberty  of  the  tenant,  interfered  with  the  tree  transfer 
of  property,  and  prevented  the  progress  of  the  country — 
fvere  the  cause  of  the  discontent  that  existed,  and  which  it 
(vas  the  object  of  the  Legislature  to  allay.  One  of  the 
so-called  ‘  casual  rights  ’  was  the  exclusive  mill  and  water¬ 


power  reserved  to  himself  by  the  feudal  lord.  Not  only  was 
the  censitaire,  or  tenant,  compelled  to  grind  his  corn  at 
the  landlord’s  mill,  but  the  latter  monopolised  the  water¬ 
power  within  his  territory,  thus  hampering  the  industry 
and  enterprise  of  the  district.  The  other  ‘right’  was  that 
by  which,  on  every  sale  and  transfer  of  property,  the  one- 
twelftli  of  the  amount  of  the  purchase-money  was  paid  to 
the  landlord.  Say  that  A  bought  property  from  B,  to  the 
value  of  120/.,  A,  in  addition  to  paying  B  the  sum  of  120/. 
as  the  purchase-money  for  his  interest,  had  also  to  pay 
another  one-twelfth,  or  10/.  more,  to  the  landlord  ;  and 
what  rendered  the  exercise  of  this  ‘right’  more  oppressive 
and  detrimental,  was  the  fact  that  on  every  re-sale  of  the 
same  property  the  same  process  of  paying  one-twelfth  to 
the  seignior  had  to  be  gone  through.  If  the  property  were 
improved  in  value,  the  seller  would  no  doubt  receive  a 
larger  price  for  his  interest ;  but  the  seignior’s  one-twelftli 
would  be  the  greater  in  consequence  of  the  increased  value 
of  the  whole.  This  one-twelftli  so  reserved  to  the  seignioi 
was  termed  a  ‘mutation  fine.’ 

To  get  rid  of  this  intolerable  grievance,  which  was 


■ 


132 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


properly  regarded  as  a  grave  public  evil  as  well  as  indi¬ 
vidual  oppression,  the  Canadian  Legislature  passed  a  law 
alike  vigorous  and  comprehensive.  The  ‘  casual  rights,’ 
specially  including  those  mentioned,  were  bought  by  the 
State  at  a  cost  little  short  of  One  Million  Sterling ;  and 
an  arrangement  was  made  for  the  capitalisation  and  pur¬ 
chase  of  the  rent  by  the  tenant,  and  its  compulsory  sale  by 
the  landlord.  Here  was  an  instance  of  serious  danger 
wisely  averted  by  a  measure  which  in  the  British  Parlia¬ 
ment  would  possibly  be  considered  revolutionary,  if  not 
altogether  confiscatory  in  its  character.  But  statesmen  in 
new  countries  are  either  more  vigorous  or  more  far-seeing 
than  statesmen  in  old  countries,  who  are  trammelled  by 
traditions  and  enfeebled  by  prejudices  ;  besides,  the  very 
instinct  of  a  young  nation  is  to  remove  from  its  path  every 
visible  impediment  to  its  progress. 

The  spirit  in  which  this  beneficent  law  was  conceived 
will  be  best  understood  from  a  passage  taken  from  its 
preamble,  and  another  from  its  concluding  clause. 

The  Preamble  says  :  c  Whereas  it  is  expedient  to  abolish 

*  all  Feudal  Bights  and  Duties  in  Lower  Canada  ;  and 
‘  whereas,  in  consideration  of  the  great  advantages  which 
c  must  result  to  the  Province  from  their  abolition,  and  the 

*  substitution  of  a  free  tenure  for  that  under  which  the 
4  property  subject  thereto  hath  heretofore  been  sold,’  &c. 

The  concluding  clause  is  still  more  emphatic.  It  pro¬ 
claims  that — c  The  Legislature  reserves  the  right  of  making 

*  any  provisions,  declaratory  or  otherwise,  which  may  be 
4  found  necessary  for  the  purpose  of  fully  carrying  out  the 
£  intention  of  this  Act ;  which  in  intent  is  declared  to  be, 
‘  to  abolish  as  soon  as  possible  all  feudal  or  seignorial 
‘  rights,  duties,  dues,  &c.  .  .  .  And  to  aid  the  censitaire  out 
£  of  the  provincial  funds  in  the  redemption  of  those  seign- 
£orial  charges  which  interfere  most  injuriously  with  his  inde¬ 
pendence ,  industry ,  and  enterprise;  and  every  enactment 
‘and  provision  in  this  Act  shall  receive  the  most  liberal 


HAPPY  RESULTS  OF  A  WISE  POLICY.  133 

‘construction  possible,  with  a  view  to  ensure  the  accom¬ 
plishment  of  the  intention  of  the  Legislature  as  hereby 
‘  stated.’ 

The  vise  action  of  the  Canadian  Parliament  at  once 
arrested  and  removed  the  deep-seated  feeling  of  discontent 
which  was  hourly  increasing  in  intensity.  From  the  example 
of  the  Canadian  Legislature  even  the  Parliament  of  the 
mother  country  may  derive  a  valuable  suggestion  as  to  the 
abolition  of  those  ‘  seignorial  rights,  duties,  dues,’  &c.,  and 
the  redemption,  or  at  least  adjustment,  of  those  charges 
‘  which  interfere  most  injuriously  with  the  independence, 
‘  industry,  and  enterprise  ’  of  the  censitaire  of  Ireland.  The 
parent  need  not  be  ashamed  to  learn  a  lesson  from  the 
child,  especially  when  the  wisdom  of  that  child’s  policy  is 
proved  beyond  the  possibility  of  doubt. 


L34 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


Tbo  Irish  Exodus — The  Quarantine  at  Grosso  Isle— The  Fever 
Sheds — Horrors  of  the  Plague — The  “Unknown7 — The  Irish 
Orphans — The  Good  Canadians — Resistless  Eloquence — One  of 
the  Orphans — The  Forgotten  Name — The  Plague  in  Montreal — 
How  the  Irish  died — The  Monument  at  Point  St.  Charles — The 
Gravemound  in  Kingston — An  illustrious  Victim  in  Toronto — 
How  the  Survivors  pushed  on — The  Irish  in  the  Cities  of  Upper 
Canada — The  Education  System — The  Dark  Shadow — The 
Poison  of  Orangeism — The  only  drawback. 

HAVE  more  than  once  referred  to  the  unfavourable 


j  circumstances  under  which  the  Vast  majority  of  the 
Irish  arrived  in  America,  and  the  difficulties  with  which, 
in  a  special  degree,  they  had  to  contend ;  but  the  picture 
would  be  most  imperfect  were  not  some  reference  made  to 
the  disastrous  emigration  of  the  years  1847  and  1848 — to 
that  blind  and  desperate  rush  across  the  Atlantic  known 
and  described,  and  to  be  recognised  for  time  to  come,  as  the 
Irish  Exodus.  We  shall  confine  our  present  reference  to 
the  emigration  to  Canada,  and  track  its  course  up  the  waters 
of  the  St.  Lawrence.  A  glance  even  at  a  single  quarantine 
— that  of  Grosse  Isle,  in  the  St.  Lawrence,  about  thirty 
miles  below  Quebec — while  affording  a  faint  idea  of  the 
horrors  crowded  into  a  few  months,  may  enable  the  reader 
to  understand  with  what  alarm  the  advent  of  the  Irish  was 
regarded  by  the  well-to-do  colonists  of  British  America; 
and  how  the  natural  terror  they  inspired,  through  the 
terrible  disease  brought  with  them  across  the  ocean, 
deepened  the  prejudice  against  them,  notwithstanding  that 
their  sufferings  and  misery  appealed  to  the  best  sympathies 
of  the  human  heart. 

On  the  8tli  of  May,  1847,  the  ‘  Urania/  from  Cork,  with 
several  hundred  immigrants  on  board,  a  large  proportion 
of  them  sick  and  dying  of  the  ship-fever,  was  put  into 
quarantine  at  Grosse  Isle.  This  was  the  first  of  the  plague- 


THE  IRISH  EXODUS— THE  SHIP  FEVER. 


135 


smitten  ships  from  Ireland  which  that  year  sailed  up  the 
St.  Lawrence.  But  before  the  first  week  of  June  as  many 
as  eighty-four  ships  of  various  tonnage  were  driven  in  by  an 
easterly  wind  ;  and  of  that  enormous  number  of  vessels 
there  was  not  one  free  from  the  taint  of  malignant  typhus, 
the  offspring  of  famine  and  of  the  foul  ship-hold.  This 
fleet  of  vessels  literally  reeked  with  pestilence.  All  sailing 
vessels, — the  merciful  speed  of  the  well-appointed  steamer 
being  unknown  to  the  emigrant  of  those  days, — a  tolerably 
quick  passage  occupied  from  six  to  eight  weeks  ;  while  pas¬ 
sages  of  ten  or  twelve  weeks,  and  even  a  longer  time,  were 
not  considered  at  all  extraordinary  at  a  period  when  craft 
of  every  kind,  the  most  unsuited  as  well  as  the  least  sea¬ 
worthy,  were  pressed  into  the  service  of  human  deportation. 

Who  can  imagine  the  horrors  of  even  the  shortest  pas¬ 
sage  in  an  emigrant  ship  crowded  beyond  its  utmost  capa¬ 
bility  of  stowage  with  unhappy  beings  of  all  ages,  with 
fever  raging  in  their  midst  ?  Under  the  most  favourable 
circumstances  it  is  impossible  to  maintain  perfect  purity  of 
atmosphere  between  decks,  even  when  ports  are  open,  and 
every  device  is  adopted  to  secure  the  greatest  amount  of 
ventilation.  But  a  crowded  emigrant  sailing  ship  of  twenty 
years  since,  with  fever  on  board  ! — the  crew  sullen  or  brutal 
from  very  desperation,  or  paralysed  with  terror  of  the 
plague — the  miserable  passengers  unable  to  help  them¬ 
selves,  or  afford  the  least  relief  to  each  other  ;  one-fourtli, 
or  one-third,  or  one-half  of  the  entire  number  in  different 
stages  of  the  disease  ;  many  dying,  some  dead  ;  the  fatal 
poison  intensified  by  the  indescribable  foulness  of  the  air 
breathed  and  rebreatlied  by  the  gasping  sufferers — the 
wails  of  children,  the  ravings  of  the  delirious,  the  cries  and 
groans  of  those  in  mortal  agony  !  Of  the  eighty-four  emi¬ 
grant  ships  that  anchored  at  Grrosse  Isle  in  the  summer  of 
1847,  there  was  not  a  single  one  to  which  this  description 
might  not  rightly  apply. 

The  authorities  were  taken  by  surprise,  owing  to  the 


136 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


sudden  arrival  of  this  plague-smitten  fleet,  and,  save  the 
sheds  that  remained  since  1832,  there  was  no  accommoda¬ 
tion  of  any  kind  on  the  island.  These  sheds  were  rapidly 
filled  with  the  miserable  people,  the  sick  and  the  dying, 
and  round  their  walls  lay  groups  of  half-naked  men, 
women,  and  children,  in  the  same  condition — sick  or  dying. 
Hundreds  were  literally  flung  on  the  beach,  left  amid  the 
mud  and  stones,  to  crawl  on  the  dry  land  how  they  could. 
‘  I  have  seen,’  says  the  priest  who  was  then  chaplain  of  the 
quarantine,  and  who  had  been  but  one  year  on  the  mission, 
‘  I  have  one  day  seen  thirty-seven  people  lying  on  the  beach, 
£  crawling  on  the  mud,  and  dying  like  fish  out  of  water.’ 
Many  of  these,  and  many  more  besides,  gasped  out  their 
last  breath  on  that  fatal  shore,  not  able  to  drag  them¬ 
selves  from  the  slime  in  which  they  lay.  Death  was  doing 
its  work  everywhere — in  the  sheds,  around  the  sheds, 
where  the  victims  lay  in  hundreds  under  the  canopy  of 
heaven,  and  in  the  poisonous  holds  of  the  plague-ships, 
all  of  which  were  declared  to  be,  and  treated  as,  hos¬ 
pitals. 

From  ship  to  ship  the  young  Irish  priest  carried  the 
consolations  of  religion  to  the  dying.  Amidst  shrieks,  and 
groans,  and  wild  ravings,  and  heart-rending  lamentations, 

• — over  prostrate  sufferers  in  every  stage  of  the  sickness — 
from  loathsome  berth  to  loathsome  berth,  he  pursued  his 
holy  task.  So  noxious  was  the  pent-up  atmosphere  of  these 
floating  pest-houses,  that  he  had  frequently  to  rush  on 
deck,  to  breathe  the  pure  air,  or  to  relieve  his  over-taxed 
stomach  ;  then  he  would  again  plunge  into  the  foul  den, 
and  resume  his  interrupted  labours. 

There  being,  at  first,  no  organisation,  no  staff,  no  avail¬ 
able  resources,  it  may  be  imagined  why  the  mortality  rose 
to  a  prodigious  rate,  and  how  at  one  time  as  many  as  150 
bodies,  most  of  them  in  a  half-naked  state,  would  be  piled 
up  in  the  dead-house,  awaiting  such  sepulture  as  a  hug^ 
pit  could  afford.  Poor  creatures  would  crawl  out  of  tlm 


HORRORS  OF  GROSSE  ISLE. 


137 


wheels,  and  being  too  exhausted  to  return,  would  be  found 
lying  in  the  open  air,  not  a  few  of  them  rigid  in  death. 
When  the  authorities  were  enabled  to  erect  sheds  sufficient 
for  the  reception  of  the  sick,  and  provide  a  staff  of  phy¬ 
sicians  and  nurses,  and  the  Archbishop  of  Quebec  had 
appointed  a  number  of  priests,  who  took  the  hospital  duty 
in  turn,  there  was  of  course  more  order  and  regularity  ; 
but  the  mortality  was  for  a  time  scarcely  diminished.  The 
deaths  were  as  many  as  100,  and  150,  and  even  200  a  day, 
and  this  for  a  considerable  period  during  the  summer. 
The  masters  of  the  quarantine-bound  ships  were  naturally 
desirous  of  getting  rid  as  speedily  as  possible  of  their 
dangerous  and  unprofitable  freight  ;  and  the  manner  in 
which  the  helpless  people  were  landed,  or  thrown,  on  the 
island,  aggravated  their  sufferings,  and  in  a  vast  number 
of  instances  precipitated  their  fate.  Then  the  hunger  and 
thirst  from  which  they  suffered  in  the  badly-found  ships, 
between  whose  crowded  and  stifling  decks  they  had 
been  so  long  pent  up,  had  so  far  destroyed  their  vital 
energy,  that  they  had  but  little  chance  of  life  when  once 
struck  down. 

About  the  middle  of  June  the  young  chaplain  was 
attacked  by  the  pestilence.  For  ten  days  he  had  not 
taken  off  his  clothes,  and  his  boots,  which  he  constantly 
wore  for  all  that  time,  had  to  be  cut  from  his  feet.  A 
couple  of  months  elapsed  before  he  resumed  his  duties  ; 
but  when  he  returned  to  his  post  of  danger  the  mortality 
was  still  of  fearful  magnitude.  Several  priests,  a  few 
Irish,  the  majority  French  Canadians,  caught  the  infec¬ 
tion  ;  and  of  the  twenty-five  who  were  attacked,  seven 
paid  with  their  lives  the  penalty  of  their  devotion.  Not  a 
few  of  these  men  wTere  professors  in  colleges  ;  but  at  the 
appeal  of  the  Archbishop  they  left  their  classes  and  their 
studies  for  the  horrors  and  perils  of  the  fever  sheds. 

It  was  not  until  the  1st  of  November  that  the  quaran¬ 
tine  of  Grosse  Isle  was  closed.  Upon  that  barren  isle  as 


138 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


many  as  10,000  of  the  Irish  race  were  consigned  to  the 
grave-pit.  By  some  the  estimate  is  made  much  higher,  and 
12,000  is  considered  nearer  the  actual  number.  A  register 
was  kept,  and  is  still  in  existence,  but  it  does  not  com¬ 
mence  earlier  than  June  16,  when  the  mortality  was  nearly 
at  its  height.  According  to  this  death-roll,  there  were 
buried,  between  the  16tli  and  30th of  June,  487  Irish  immi¬ 
grants  ‘whose  names  could  not  be  ascertained.’  In  July, 
941  were  thrown  into  nameless  graves  ;  and  in  August, 
918  were  entered  in  the  register  under  the  comprehensive 
description — ‘unknown.’  There  were  interred,  from  the 
16th  of  June  to  the  closing  of  the  quarantine  for  that  year, 
2,905  of  a  Christian  people,  whose  names  could  not  be 
discovered  amidst  the  confusion  and  carnage  of  that  fatal 
summer.  In  the  following  year,  2,000  additional  victims 
were  entered  in  the  same  register,  without  name  or  trace 
of  any  kind,  to  tell  who  they  were,  or  whence  they  had 
come.  Thus  5,000  out  of  the  .total  number  of  victims  were 
simply  described  as  ‘  unknown.’ 

This  deplorable  havoc  of  human  life  left  hundreds  of  or¬ 
phans  dependent  on  the  compassion  of  the  public  ;  and 
nobly  was  the  unconscious  appeal  of  this  multitude  of  des¬ 
titute  little  ones  responded  to  by  the  French  Canadians. 
Half  naked,  squalid,  covered  with  vermin  generated  by 
hunger,  fever,  and  the  foulness  of  the  ship’s  hold,  perhaps 
with  the  germs  of  the  plague  lurking  in  their  vitiated 
blood,  these  helpless  innocents  of  every  age — from  the 
infant  taken'  from  the  bosom  of  its  dead  mother  to  the 
child  that  could  barely  tell  the  name  of  its  parents — were 
gathered  under  the  fostering  protection  of  the  Church. 
They  were  washed,  and  clad,  and  fed  ;  and  every  effort  was 
made  by  the  clergy  and  nuns  'who  took  them  into  their 
charge  to  discover  who  they  were,  what  their  names,  and 
which  of  them  were  related  the  one  to  the  other,  so  that,  if 
possible,  children  of  the  same  family  might  jiot  be  sepa¬ 
rated  for  ever.  A  difficult  thing  it  was  to  learn  from  mere 


TT1E  (JOOD  CANADIANS. 


130 


infants  whether,  among  more  than  COO  orphans,  they  had 
brothers  or  sisters.  But  by  patiently  observing  the  little 
creatures  when  they  found  strength  and  courage  to  play, 
their  watchful  protectors  were  enabled  to  find  out  relation¬ 
ships  which,  without  such  care,  would  have  been  otherwise 
unknown.  If  one  infant  ran  to  meet  another,  or  caught 
its  hand,  or  smiled  at  it,  or  kissed  it,  or  showed  pleasure 
in  its  society,  here  was  a  clue  to  be  followed ;  and  in  many 
instances  children  of  the  same  parents  were  thus  preserved 
to  each  other.  Many  more,  of  course,  were  separated  for 
ever,  as  these  children  were  too  young  to  tell  their  own 
names,  or  do  anything  save  cry  in  piteous  accents  for 
‘  mammy,  mammy !  ’  until  soothed  to  slumber  in  the  arms 
of  a  compassionate  Sister. 

The  greater  portion  of  the  orphans  of  the  Grosse  Isle 
tragedy  were  adopted  by  the  French  Canadians,  who  were 
appealed  to  by  their  cures  at  the  earnest  request  of  Father 
Cazeau,  then  Secretary  to  the  Archbishop,  and  now  one  of 
the  Yicars  General  of  the  Archdiocese  of  Quebec.  M. 
Cazeau  is  one  of  the  ablest  of  the  ecclesiastics  of  the  Cana¬ 
dian  Church,  and  is  no  less  remarkable  for  worth  and  ability 
than  for  the  generous  interest  he  has  ever  exhibited  for  the 
Irish  people.  Father  Cazeau  had  employed  his  powerful 
influence  with  the  country  clergy  to  provide  for  the  greater 
number  of  the  children ;  but  some  200  still  remained  in  a 
building  specially  set  apart  for  them,  and  this  is  how  these 
200  Irish  orphans  were  likewise  provided  for  : 

Monseigneur  Baillargeon,  Bishop  of  Quebec,  wns  then  cure 
of  the  city.  He  had  received  three  or  four  of  the  orphans 
into  his  own  house,  and  among  them  a  beautiful  boy  of 
two  years,  or  perhaps  somewhat  younger.  The  others  had 
been  taken  from  him  and  adopted  by  the  kindly  habitans, 
and  become  part  of  their  families ;  but  the  little  fellow, 
who  was  the  cure’s  special  pet,  remained  with  him  for 
nearly  two  years.  From  creeping  up  and  down  stairs,  and 
toddling  about  in  every  direction,  he  soon  began  to  grow 


140 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


strong,  and  bold,  and  noisy,  as  a  fine  healthy  child  would 
be ;  but  though  his  fond  protector  rejoiced  in  the  health 
and  beauty  of  the  boy,  he  found  him  rather  unsuited  to 
the  quiet  gravity  of  a  priest’s  house,  and  a  decided  ob¬ 
stacle  to  study  and  meditation.  t  In  the  midst  of  his 
perplexity,  of  which  the  child  was  the  unconscious  cause 
to  the  Cure  of  Quebec,  a  clergyman  from  the  country 
arrived  in  town.  This  priest  visited  M.  Baillargeon,  who 
told  him  that  he  had  200  poor  orphan  children — the  child¬ 
ren  of  ‘  the  faithful  Catholic  Irish  ’ — still  unprovided  with  a 
home,  and  he  was  most  anxious  that  his  visitor  should  call 
on  his  parishioners  to  take  them.  £Come,’  said  he  £I 
will  show  you  a  sample  of  them,  and  you  can  tell  your 
people  what  they  are  like.’  Saying  this,  M.  Baillargeon 
led  his  visitor  up  stairs,  and  into  the  room  where,  in  a 
little  cot,  the  orphan  child  was  lying  in  rosy  sleep.  As 
the  light  fell  upon  the  features  of  the  beautiful  boy,  who 
was  reposing  in  all  the  unrivalled  grace  of  infancy,  the 
country  cure  was  greatly  touched :  he  had  never,  he  said, 
seen  a  ‘lovelier  little  angel’  in  his  life.  ‘Well,’  said  M, 
Baillargeon,  £I  have  200  more  as  handsome.  Take  him 
with  you,  show  him  to  your  people,  and  tell  them  to  come 
for  the  others.’  That  very  night  the  boat  in  which  he 
was  to  reach  his  parish  was  to  start ;  and  the  cure  wrapped 
the  infant  carefully  in  the  blanket  in  which  he  lay,  and, 
without  disturbing  his  slumber,  bore  him  off  to  the  boat, 
a  valued  prize. 

The  next  Sunday  a  strange  sight  was  witnessed  in  the 
parish  church  of  which  the  cure  was  the  pastor.  The 
priest  was  seen  issuing  from  the  sacristy,  holding  in  his 
arms  a  boy  of  singular  beauty,  whose  little  hands  were 
tightly  clasped,  half  in  terror,  half  in  excitement,  round 
the  neck  of  his  bearer.  Every  eye  was  turned  towards  this 
strange  spectacle,  and  the  most  intense  curiosity  was  felt 
by  the  congregation,  in  a  greater  degree  by  the  women, 


RESISTLESS  ELOQUENCE. 


141 


especially  those  who  were  mothers,  to  learn  what  it  meant. 
It  was  soon  explained  by  their  pastor,  who  said  : — 

‘  Look  at  this  little  boy !  Poor  infant !  (Here  the  cure 
embraced  him).  Look  at  his  noble  forehead,  his  bright 
eyes,  his  curling  hair,  his  mouth  like  a  cherub’s  !  Oh, 
what  a  beautiful  boy  !  (Another  embrace,  the  half-terrified 
child  clinging  closer  to  the  priest’s  breast,  his  tears  drop¬ 
ping  fast  upon  the  surplice. )  £  Look,  my  dear  friends,  at 

this  beautiful  child,  who  has  been  sent  by  God  to  our  care. 
There  are  200  as  beautiful  children  as  this  poor  forlorn 
infant.  They  were  starved  out  of  their  own  country  by 
bad  laws,  and  their  fathers  and  their  poor  mothers  now  lie 
in  the  great  grave  at  Grosse  Isle.  Poor  mothers !  they 
could  not  remain  with  their  little  ones.  You  will  be 
mothers  to  them.  The  father  died,  and  the  mother  died  ; 
but  before  she  died,  tjie  pious  mother — the  Irish  Catholic 
mother — left  them  to  the  good  God,  and  the  good  God 
now  gives  them  to  you.  Mothers,  you  will  not  refuse  the 
gift  of  the  good  God!  (The  kindly  people  responded  to 
this  appeal  with  tears  and  gestures  of  passionate  assent.) 
Go  quickly  to  Quebec  ;  there  you  will  find  these  orphan 
children — these  gifts  offered  to  you  by  the  good  God — go 
quickly — go  to-morrow — lose  not  a  moment — take  them 
and  carry  them  to  your  homes,  and  they  will  bring  a 
blessing  on  you  and  your  families.  I  say,  go  to-morrow 
without  fail,  or  others  may  be  before  you.  Yes,  dear 
friends,  they  will  be  a  blessing  to  you  as  they  grow  up,  a 
strong  healthy  race — fine  women,  and  fine  men,  like  this 
beautiful  boy.  Poor  child,  you  will  be  sure  to  find  a 
second  mother  in  this  congregation.’  (Another  em¬ 
brace,  the  little  fellow’s  tears  flowing  more  abundantly  ; 
every  eye  in  the  church  glistening  with  responsive 
sympathy). 

This  was  the  cure’s  sermon,  and  it  may  be  doubted  if 
Bossuet  or  Fenelon  ever  produced  a  like  effect.  Next  day 
there  was  to  be  seen  a  long  procession  of  waggons  moving 


142 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


towards  Quebec  ;  and  on  the  evening  of  that  day  there  was 
not  one  of  the  200  Irish  orphans  that  had  not  been  brought 
to  a  Canadian  home,  there  to  be  nurtured  with  tenderness 
and  love,  as  the  gift  of  the  Bon  Dieii.  Possibly,  in  some 
instances  that  tenderness  and  love  were  not  requited  in 
after  life,  but  in  most  instances  the  Irish  orphan  brought  a 
blessing  to  the  hearth  of  its  adopted  parents.  The  boy 
whose  beauty  and  whose  tears  so  powerfully  assisted  the 
simple  oratory  of  the  good  cure,  is  now  one  of  the  ablest 
lawyers  in  Quebec — but  a  French  Canadian  in  every  respect 
save  in  birth  and  blood. 

As  soon  as  good  food  and  tender  care  had  restored 
vigour  to  their  youthful  limbs,  the  majority  of  the  orphans 
played  in  happy  unconsciousness  of  their  bereavement  ; 
but  there  were  others,  a  few  years  older,  on  whom  the 
horrors  of  Grosso  Isle  had  made  a  lasting  impression. 

A  decent  couple  had  sailed  in  one  of  the  ships,  bringing 
with  them  two  girls  and  a  boy,  the  elder  of  the  former 
being  about  thirteen,  the  boy  not  more  than  seven  or  eight. 
The  father  died  first,  the  mother  next.  As  the  affrighted 
children  knelt  by  their  dying  mother,  the  poor  woman, 
strong  in  her  faith,  with  her  last  accents  confided  her  help¬ 
less  offspring  to  ‘the  protection  of  God  and  His  Blessed 
Mother/  and  told  them  to  have  confidence  in  the  Father 
of  the  widow  and  the  orphan.  Lovingly  did  the  cold  hand 
linger  on  the  head  of  her  boy,  as,  with  expiring  energy, 
she  invoked  a  blessing  upon  him  and  his  weeping  sisters. 
Thus  the  pious  mother  died  in  the  fever-slied  of  Grosse  Isle. 
The  children  were  taken  care  of,  and  sent  to  the  same 
district,  so  as  not  to  be  separated  from  each  other.  The 
boy  was  received  into  the  home  of  a  French  Canadian  ;  his 
sisters  were  adopted  by  another  family  in  the  neighbour¬ 
hood.  For  two  weeks  the  boy  never  uttered  a  word,  never 
smiled,  never  appeared  conscious  of  the  presence  of  those 
around  him,  or  of  the  attention  lavished  on  him  by  his 
generous  protectors,  who  had  almost  come  to  believe 


ONE  OF  THE  ORPHANS  OF  THE  PLAGUE. 


143 


that  they  had  adopted  a  little  mute,  or  that  he  had  momen¬ 
tarily  lost  the  power  of  speech  through  fright  or  starvation 
But  at  the  end  of  the  fortnight  he  relieved  them  of  their 
fears  by  uttering  some  words  of,  to  them,  an  unknown 
language  ;  and  from  that  moment  the  speH,  wrought,  as  it 
were,  by  the  cold  hand  of  his  dying  mother,  passed  from 
the  spirit  of  the  boy,  and  he  thenceforth  clung  with  the 
fondness  of  youth  to  his  second  parents.  The  Irish 
orphan  soon  sj)oke  the  language  of  his  new  home,  though 
he  never  lost  the  memory  of  the  fever-sheds  and  the  awful 
death-bed,  or  of  his  weeping  sisters,  and  the  last  words 
spoken  by  the  faithful  Christian  woman  who  commended 
him  to  the  protection  of  God  and  His  Blessed  Mother. 
He  grew  up  a  youth  of  extraordinary  promise,  and  wTas 
received  into  the  college  of  Nicolet,  then  in  the  diocese  of 
Quebec,  where  he  graduated  with  the  greatest  honours. 
His  vocation  being  for  the  Church,  he  became  a  priest ;  and 
it  was  in  18G5  that,  as  a  deacon,  he  entered  the  College  of 
St.  Michael,  near  Toronto,  to  learn  the  language  of  his 
parents,  of  which  he  had  lost  all  remembrance.  He  is  now 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  professors  of  the  college  in 
which  he  was  educated  ;  and,  in  order  to  pay  back  the 
debt  incurred  by  his  support  and  education,  he  does  not 
accept  more  than  a  small  stipend  for  his  services.  Of  his 
Irish  name,  which  he  was  able  to  retain,  he  is  very  proud ; 
and  though  his  tongue  is  more  that  of  a  French  Canadian, 
his  feelings  and  sympathies  are  with  the  people  and  the 
country  of  his  birth.  The  prayers  of  the  dying  mother 
were  indeed  heard  ;  for  the  elder  of  the  girls  was  married 
by  the  gentleman  who  received  them  both  into  his  house, 
and  the  younger  is  ir  a  convent. 

Absorbed  thus  into  the  families  of  the  French-speaking 
population,  even  the  older  Irish  orphans  soon  lost  almost 
every  memory  of  their  former  home  and  of  their  parents, 
and  grew  up  French  Canadians  in  every  respect  save  the 
more  vigorous  constitution  for  which  they  were  indebted 


144 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


to  nature.  It  is  not,  therefore,  a  rare  thing  to  behold  a 
tall,  strapping,  fair-skinned  young  fellow,  with  an  unmis¬ 
takable  Irish  name,  and  an  unmistakable  Irish  face,  who 
speaks  and  thinks  as  a  French  Canadian.  Thus  genuine 
Irish  names — as  Cassidy,  or  Lonergan,  or  Sullivan,  or 
Quinn,  or  Murphy — are  to  be  heard  of  at  this  day  in  many 
of  the  homes  of  the  kindly  habitant  of  Lower  Canada. 

Though  it  was  the  humane  policy  of  those  who  took  care 
of  the  orphans  of  Grosse  Isle  to  keep  the  same  family  in 
the  same  neighbourhood,  so  as  not  to  separate  brother 
from  sister,  it  has  happened  that  a  brother  has  been  reared 
by  a  French  family,  and  a  sister  by  an  Irish,  or  English- 
speaking,  family ;  and  when  the  orphans  have  been  brought 
together  by  their  adopted  parents,  they  could  only  express 
their  emotions  by  embraces  and  tears — the  language  of  the 
neart. 

In  some,  but  rare  instances,  visions  of  the  past  have 
haunted  the  memory  of  Irish  orphans  in  their  new  homes. 
One  of  these,  a  young  girl  who  bore  the  name  of  her  pro¬ 
tectors,  was  possessed  wTith  a  passionate  longing  to  learn 
her  real  name,  and  to  know  something  of  her  parents.  A 
once  familiar  sound,  which  she  somehow  associated  with 
her  former  name,  floated  through  her  brain,  vague  and  in¬ 
distinct,  but  ever  present.  The  longing  to  ascertain  who 
she  was,  and  whether  either  of  her  parents  was  stiH  living, 
grew  into  an  absorbing  passion,  which  preyed  upon  her 
health.  She  Tvould  frequently  write  what  expressed  her 
recollection  of  the  name  she  had  once  borne,  and  which  she 
thought  she  had  been  called  in  her  infancy  by  those  who 
loved  her.  The  desire  to  clear  up  the  doubt  becoming  at 
length  uncontrollable,  she  implored  the  cure  of  her  parish 
to  institute  inquiries  in  her  behalf.  Written  in  French 
characters,  nearly  all  resemblance  to  the  supposed  name 
was  lost ;  but  through  the  aid  of  inquiries  set  on  foot  by 
Father  Dowd,  the  Parish  Priest  of  St.  Patrick’s,  in  Mon¬ 
treal,  and  guided  by  the  faint  indication  afforded  by  what 


THE  PLAGUE  IN  MONTREAL. 


1 15 


resembled  a  sound  more  than  a  sirname,  it  was  discovered 
that  her  mother  had  taken  her  out  to  America  in  1847, 
and  that  her  father  had  never  quitted  Ireland.  A  com¬ 
munication  was  at  once  established  between  father  and 
child ;  and  from  that  moment  the  girl  began  to  recover 
her  health,  which  had  been  nearly  sacrificed  to  her  pas¬ 
sionate  yearning. 

The  horrors  of  Grosse  Isle  had  their  counterpart  in 
Montreal. 

As  in  Quebec,  the  mortality  was  greater  in  1847  than  in 
the  year  following ;  but  it  was  not  till  the  close  of  1848  that 
the  plague  might  be  said  to  be  extinguished,  not  without 
fearful  sacrifice  of  life.  During  the  months  of  June,  July, 
August,  and  September,  the  season  when  nature  wears  her 
most  glorious  garb  of  loveliness,  as  many  as  eleven  hun¬ 
dred  of  ‘  the  faithful  Irish,’  as  the  Canadian  priest  truly  de¬ 
scribed  them,  were  lying  at  one  time  in  the  fever-sheds  at 
Point  St.  Charles,  in  which  rough  wooden  beds  were  placed 
in  rows,  and  so  close  as  scarcely  to  admit  of  room  to  pass. 
In  these  miserable  cribs  the  patients  lay,  sometimes  two 
together,  looking,  as  a  Sister  of  Charity  since  wrote,  ‘  as  if 
they  were  in  their  coffins,’  from  the  box-like  appearance  of 
their  wretched  beds.  Throughout  those  glorious  months, 
while  the  sun  shone  brightly,  and  the  majestic  river  rolled 
along  in  golden  waves,  hundreds  of  the  poor  Irish  were 
dying  daily.  The  world  outside  was  gay  and  glad,  but  death 
was  rioting  in  the  fever-sheds.  It  was  a  moment  to  try 
the  devotion  which  religion  inspires,  to  test  the  courage 
with  which  it  animates  the  gentlest  breast.  First  came 
the  Grey  Nuns,  strong  in  love  and  faith ;  but  so  malignant 
was  the  disease,  that  thirty  of  their  number  were  stricken 
down,  and  thirteen  died  the  death  of  martyrs.  There  was 
no  faltering,  no  holding  back ;  no  sooner  were  the  ranks 
thinned  by  death  than  the  gaps  were  quickly  filled ;  and 
when  the  Grey  Nuns  were  driven  to  the  last  extremity, 
the  Sisters  of  Providence  came  to  their  assistance,  and 

7 


hg 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


took  tlieir  place  by  tlie  side  of  tlie  dying*  strangers.  But 
when  even  tlieir  aid  did  not  suffice  to  meet  the  emergency, 
the  Sisters  of  St.  Joseph,  though  cloistered  nuns,  received 
the  permission  of  the  Bishop  to  share  with  their  sister 
religious  the  hardships  and  dangers  of  labour  by  day  and 
night. 

‘I  am  the  only  one  left,’  were  the  thrilling  words  hi 
which  the  surviving  priest  announced  from  the  pulpit  the 
ravages  that  the  ‘  ocean  plague  ’  had  made  in  the  ranks  of 
the  clergy.  "With  a  single  exception,  the  local  priests  were 
either  sick  or  dead.  Eight  of  the  number  fell  at  their 
post,  true  to  their  duty.  The  good  Bishop,  Monseigneur 
Bourget,  then  went  himself,  to  take  his  turn  in  the  lazar- 
house ;  but  the  enemy  was  too  mighty  for  his  zeal,  and 
having  remained  in  the  discharge  of  his  self-imposed  task 
for  a  day  and  a  night,  he  contracted  the  fever,  and  was 
carried  home  to  a  sick-bed,  where  he  lay  for  weeks,  hover¬ 
ing  between  life  and  death,  amid  the  tears  and  prayers  of 
his  people,  to  whom  Providence  restored  him  after  a  period 
of  intense  anxiety  to  them,  and  long  and  weary  suffering 
to  him. 

When  the  city  priests  were  found  inadequate  to  the  dis¬ 
charge  of  their  pressing  duties,  the  country  priests  cheer¬ 
fully  responded  to  the  call  of  their  Bishop,  and  came  to 
the  assistance  of  their  brethren  ;  and  of  the  country  priests 
not  a  few  found  the  grave  and  the  crown  of  the  martyr. 

Among  the  priests  wTho  fell  a  sacrifice  to  their  duty  in 
the  fever-sheds  of  Montreal  was  Father  Bichards,  a  vener¬ 
able  man,  long  past  the  time  of  active  service.  A  convert 
from  Methodism  in  early  life,  he  had  specially  devoted  his 
services  to  the  Irish,  then  but  a  very  small  proportion  of 
the  population  ;  and  now,  when  the  cry  of  distress  from  the 
same  race  was  heard,  the  good  old  man  could  not  be  re¬ 
strained  from  ministering  to  their  wants.  Not  only  did  he 
mainly  provide  for  the  safety  of  the  hundreds  of  orphan 
children,  whom  the  death  of  their  parents  had  left  to  the 


HOW  THE  IRISH  DIED. 


117 


mercy  of  the  charitable,  but,  in  spite  of  his  great  age,  he 
laboured  in  the  sheds  with  a  zeal  which  could  not  be 
excelled. 

c  Father  Richards  wants  fresh  straw  for  the  beds,’  said 
the  messenger  to  the  mayor. 

‘  Certainly,  he  shall  have  it :  I  wish  it  was  gold,  for  his 
sake,’  replied  the  mayor. 

A  few  days  after  both  Protestant  mayor  and  Catholic 
priest  ‘  had  gone  where  straw  and  gold  are  of  equal  value,’ 
wrote  the  Sister  already  mentioned.  Both  had  died  mar¬ 
tyrs  of  charity. 

Only  a  few  days  before  Father  Richards  was  seized  with 
his  fatal  illness  he  preached  on  Sunday  in  St.  Patrick’s, 
and  none  who  heard  him  on  that  occasion  could  forget  the 
venerable  appearance  and  impressive  words  of  that  noble 
servant  of  God.  Addressing  a  hushed  and  sorrow-stricken 
audience,  as  the  tears  rolled  down  his  aged  cheeks,  he 
thus  spoke  of  the  sufferings  and  the  faith  of  the  Irish  : — 

‘  Oh,  my  beloved  brethren,  grieve  not,  I  beseech  you, 
for  the  sufferings  and  death  of  so  many  of  your  race, 
perchance  your  kindred,  who  have  fallen,  and  are  still  to 
fall,  victims  to  this  fearful  pestilence.  Their  patience, 
their  faith,  have  edified  all  whose  privilege  it  was  to  wit¬ 
ness  it.  Their  faith,  their  resignation  to  the  will  of  God 
under  such  unprecedented  misery,  is  something  so  extra¬ 
ordinary  that,  to  realise  it,  it  requires  to  be  seen.  Oh,  my 
brethren,  grieve  not  for  them  ;  they  did  but  pass  from 
earth  to  the  glory  of  heaven.  True,  they  were  cast  in 
heaps  into  the  earth,  their  place  of  sepulture  marked  by 
no  name  or  epitaph  ;  but  I  tell  you,  my  dearly  beloved 
brethren,  that  from  their  ashes  the  faith  will  spring  up 
along  the  St.  Lawrence,  for  they  died  martyrs,  as  they  lived 
confessors,  to  the  faith.’ 

The  whole  city,  Protestant  and  Catholic,  mourned  the 
death  of  this  fine  old  man,  one  of  the  most  illustrious 
victims  of  the  scourge  in  Montreal. 


148 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


The  orphan  children  were  gathered  to  the  homes  and 
hearts  of  the  generous  Canadians  and  the  loving  Irish  ; 
and  most  of  them  had  grown  np  to  manhood  and  woman¬ 
hood  before  either  monument  or  epitaph  marked  the  spot 
in  which  the  bones  of  their  dead  parents  were  mingling 
with  the  dust.  But  there  is  a  monument  and  a  record, 
the  pious  work  of  English  workmen,  inspired  by  the 
humane  suggestion  of  English  gentlemen.  In  the  centre 
of  a  railed-in  spot  of  land  at  Point  St.  Charles,  within  a 
hundred  yards  or  so  of  the  Victoria  Bridge,  that  wondrous 
structure  which  spans  the  broad  St.  Lawrence,  there  is  a 
huge  boulder,  taken  from  the  bed  of  the  river,  and  placed 
on  a  platform  of  roughly  hewn  stone  ;  and  on  that  boulder 
there  is  this  inscription  : — 

TO 

Preserve  from  desecration 
THE  REMAINS  OF  SIX  THOUSAND  IMMIGRANTS, 

Who  died  of  Ship-fever, 
a.d.  1847-8, 

This  stone  is  erected  by  the 

WORKMEN  OF  MESSRS.  TETO,  BRASSY,  AND  BETTS, 

Employed  in  the 

Construction  of  the  Victoria  Bridge, 
a.d.  1859. 

In  the  church  of  the  Bon  Secour  one  may  see  a  memorial 
picture,  repesrenting  with  all  the  painter’s  art  the  horrors 
and  the  glories  of  the  fever-shed — the  dying  Irish,  strong 
in  their  faith — the  ministering  Sisters  shedding  peace  on 
the  pillow  of  suffering — the  holy  Bishop  affording  the  last 
consolations  of  religion  to  those  to  whom  the  world  was 
then  as  nothing  :  but,  in  its  terrible  significance,  the  rude 
monument  by  that  mighty  river’s  side  is  far  more  im¬ 
pressive. 

Let  us  follow  the  Irish  emigrant — c  the  faithful  Irish  ’ — 
farther  up  the  St.  Lawrence. 

In  the  grounds  of  the  General  Hospital  of  Kingston 
there  is  an  artificial  mound,  of  gentle  swell  and  moderate 


THE  GRAVE-MOUND  IN  KINGSTON. 


119 


elevation,  the  grass  on  which  is  ever  green,  as  if  owing  to 
some  peculiar  richness  of  the  soil.  When  verdure  has 
been  elsewhere  burned  up  or  parched,  on  this  soft-swelling 
mound  greenness  is  perpetual.  Beneath  that  verdant 
shroud  lie  mouldering  the  bones  of  1,900  Irish  immigrants, 
victims  of  the  same  awful  scourge  of  their  race — the  ship 
fever.  With  the  intention  of  pushing  on  to  the  West,  the 
goal  of  their  hopes,  multitudes  of  the  Irish  reached  Kings¬ 
ton,  350  miles  up  the  St.  Lawrence  from  Quebec  ;  but  the 
plague  broke  out  amongst  this  mass  of  human  misery,  and 
they  rotted  away  like  sheep.  So  fast  did  they  die,  that 
there  were  not  means  to  provide  coffins  in  which  to  inter 
them.  There  was  timber  more  than  sufficient  for  the 
purpose,  but  the  hands  to  fashion  the  plank  into  the 
coffin  were  too  few,  and  Death  was  too  rapid  in  his  stroke  ; 
and  so  a  huge  pit  of  circular  form  was  dug,  and  in  it  were 
laid,  in  tiers,  piled  one  upon  the  other,  the  bodies  of  1,900 
men,  women,  and  children  :  and  even  to  the  hour  when  I 
beheld  the  light  of  the  setting  sun  imparting  additional 
beauty  to  its  vivid  greenness,  there  was  neither  rail,  nor 
fence,  nor  stone,  nor  cross,  nor  inscription,  to  tell  that  1,900 
of  a  Christian  people  slept  beneath  the  turf  of  that  gigan¬ 
tic  grave. 

Twenty  years  ago  Kingston  was  a  small  place,  with  little 
more  than  half  its  present  population  ;  and  the  Irish,  who 
now  form  an  important  portion  of  its  community,  were 
then  comparatively  few  in  number.  But  in  no  part  of 
British  America  did  the  Irish  display  a  more  heroic  devo¬ 
tion  to  humanity  and  country  than  in  that  city,  from  which 
the  greater  number  of  the  inhabitants  had  fled  in  terror, 
at  the  presence  of  the  migratory  hordes  who  brought 
pestilence  with  them  in  their  march.  The  Irish  of  the 
town  stood  their  ground  bravely  ;  and  not  only  were  their 
houses  thrown  open  to  their  afflicted  countrypeople,  and 
their  means  placed  unreservedly  at  their  disposal,  but  they 
tended  the  sick  and  dying,  and  ministered  to  them  in  the 


150 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


holiest  spirit  of  charity.  Among  the  best  and  bravest  of 
those  who  succoured  the  plague-smitten  of  that  dreadful 
time,  were  three  Irish  Protestants — Mr.  Kirkpatrick,  then 
Mayor  of  Kingston,  Alderman  Kobert  Anglin,  and  Mr. 
William  Ford,  afterwards  Mayor — who  wTere  in  the  sheds 
both  day  and  night,  and  by  their  ceaseless  efforts  to  relieve 
the  sufferers,  inspired  others  with  increased  courage  and 
still  greater  self-devotion. 

Father  Dollard,  an  Irish  clergyman,  had  to  bear  the 
chief  share  of  the  priestly  duty  ;  and  from  the  first  mo¬ 
ment  that  the  fever  broke  out,  until  the  earth  wtis  beat¬ 
en  down  on  the  top  of  the  grave-mound,  he  was  in  the 
midst  of  the  danger.  So  shocking  was  the  condition  in 
which  the  unhappy  people  reached  Kingston,  the  last 
resting-place  of  many  of  them,  that  the  clergymen,  three 
at  the  most,  had  to  change  their  own  clothes  repeatedly 
in  the  day.  One  of  the  three  priests,  who  had  been  only 
just  ordained,  died  of  the  contagion. 

When  the  plague  abated,  and  the  danger  no  longer 
existed,  the  inhabitants  returned  ;  and  now  there  began 
an  unseemly  scramble  for  the  orphan  children  of  the 
Catholic  parents  who  slept  beneath  the  mound  in  the 
grounds  of  the  Hospital.  The  Irish  Catholics  of  the  sur¬ 
rounding  locality  strained  every  resource  in  order  to  afford 
a  home  to  the  orphans  of  their  native  country  and  religion, 
and  through  their  charity  the  greater  number  of  them 
were  well  provided  for  ;  but  others  of  a  different  faith  se¬ 
cured  a  certain  proportion  of  the  children,  who  are  now 
perhaps  bitter  opponents  of  the  creed  of  their  fathers. 

The  same  scenes  of  suffering  and  death  were  to  be 
witnessed  in  the  city  of  Toronto,  as  in  the  other  cities 
of  Canada  during  those  memorable  years,  1847  and  184S. 
Sheds  were  constructed,  and  hearses  and  dead-carts  were 
in  hourly  requisition.  The  panic  was  universal ;  but  the 
humane  and  high-spirited,  of  all  denominations,  did  their 
dntj  manfully.  Two  and  three  coffins  were  constantly  to 


AN  ILLUSTRIOUS  VICTIM  IN  TORONTO. 


151 


be  seen  on  tlie  hearse  or  waggon  used  for  bearing  the  dead 
to  the  grave-pit  outside  the  town.  One  day  the  horse 
drawing  this  hearse  got  restive,  and,  breaking  from  his 
conductor,  upset  the  three  coffins,  which,  falling  into  pieces, 
literally  gave  up  their  dead.  This  occurred  near  the 
Market  Square,  about  the  most  public  thoroughfare  in 
Toronto,  and  at  once  a  crowd  assembled,  horror-stricken 
but  fascinated  by  the  awful  spectacle.  Every  effort  was 
made  to  repair  as  speedily  as  possible  the  momentary  dis¬ 
aster  ;  but  it  was  some  time  before  the  three  wasted  bodies 
of  the  poor  Irish  could  be  hidden  from  sight.  The  priests, 
as  in  all  similar  cases,  were  ceaselessly  at  work,  with  the 
usual  result — the  sacrifice  of  several  of  their  number. 

Among  the  losses  which  the  Catholic  Church  had  to 
deplore  during  this  crisis,  was  that  of  a  venerable  Irish¬ 
man,  Dr.  Power,  Bishop  of  Toronto.  He  was  implored  by 
his  people  not  to  expose  a  life  so  valuable  to  his  fiock ;  but 
he  replied,  that  where  the  souls  of  Christians,  and  these  the 
natives  of  his  own  country,  were  in  peril,  it  was  his  duty  to 
be  there.  ‘  My  good  priests  are  down  in  sickness,  and  the 
duty  devolves  on  me.  The  poor  souls  are  going  to  heaven, 
and  I  will  do  all  I  can  to  assist  them,’  said  the  Bishop. 
And  in  spite  of  the  most  earnest  and  affectionate  re¬ 
monstrance,  he  persevered  in  performing  the  same  labours 
as  the  youngest  of  his  priests.  The  Bishop  prepared  for 
his  post  of  danger  by  making  his  will,  and  appointing  an 
administrator.  The  letters  of  administration  were  lengthy, 
and  of  much  importance,  embracing  necessarily  the  finan¬ 
cial  and  other  concerns  of  the  diocese.  This  document, 
most  precious  from  its  association  with  the  voluntary 
martyrdom  of  the  venerable  Prelate,  is  preserved  among 
the  episcopal  archives  of  Toronto.  It  was  commenced 
with  a  bold  firm  hand ;  but  as  it  proceeded  amid  frequent 
interruptions — his  visits  to  console  the  dying  being  their 
chief  cause — the  writing  became  more  and  more  feeble, 
until  one  might  mark,  in  the  faint  and  trembling  characters 


152 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


of  tlie  concluding  lines,  the  near  approach  of  death,  which 
soon  consigned  him  to  the  tomb,  another  martyr  to  duty. 
Barely,  if  ever,  has  a  larger  funeral  procession  been  seen 
in  Toronto,  and  never  has  there  been  a  more  universal 
manifestation  of  public  sorrow  than  was  witnessed  on 
that  mournful  occasion.  Every  place  of  business  in  the 
streets  through  which  the  procession  passed  was  closed, 
and  Protestant  vied  with  Catholic  in  doing  honour  to  the 
memory  of  a  holy  and  brave-hearted  prelate. 

Partridge  Island,  opposite  the  city  of  St.  John,  New 
Brunswick,  wTas  the  scene  of  more  horrors,  more  destruc¬ 
tion  of  human  life.  In  fact,  wherever  an  emigrant  ship 
touched  the  shores  of  the  British  Provinces,  or  sailed  into 
their  rivers,  there  is  the  same  awful  carnage  to  be  re¬ 
corded. 

A  portion  of  the  survivors  pushed  on  to  the  West,  their 
march  still  tracked  by  fever,  and  marked  by  new-made 
graves.  The  majority  stopped  at  various  places  on  the 
way,  or  spread  over  Central  and  Western  Canada,  many 
settling  on  Crown  lands  placed  at  their  disposal  by  the 
Government,  but  others  hiring  themselves  as  farm  la* 
bourers,  not  having,  as  yet,  the  energy  to  face  the  forest, 
and  engage  in  a  struggle  for  which  disease  and  sorrow  had 
rendered  them  for  a  time  unequal.  But  in  half  a  dozen 
years  after  might  be  seen,  along  the  shores  of  the  lakes, 
and  on  the  banks  of  the  great  rivers  and  their  tributaries, 
prosperous  settlements  of  those  fever-hunted  exiles,  who, 
Hying  in  terror  from  their  owTn  country,  carried  plague 
and  desolation  with  them  to  the  country  of  their  adoption. 
It  was  remarked  of  them  that,  though  they  bravely  rallied, 
and  set  about  their  work  as  settlers  with  an  energy  almost 
desperate,  many  seemed  to  be  prematurely  old,  and  broke 
down  after  some  years  of  ceaseless  toil;  but  not  beforo 
they  had  achieved  the  groat  object  of  their  ambition — • 
made  a  home  and  realised  a  property  for  those  who,  with 


HOW  THE  IRISH  PUSHED  ON. 


153 


them,  survived  tlie  horrors  of  the  passage,  and  the  havoc  of 
the  quarantine  and  the  fever-shed. 

Even  to  this  day  the  terror  inspired  in  the  minds  of  the 
inhabitants  through  whose  districts  the  Irish  emigrants 
passed  in  the  terrible  years  of  1847  and  1848,  has  not  died 
out.  I  was  told  of  one  instance  where,  little  more  than  a 
year  since,  whole  villages  were  scared  at  the  announcement, 
happily  untrue,  that  ‘  the  poor  Irish  were  coming,  and  were 
bringing  the  fever  with  them.’  It  was  scarcely  a  subject  for 
the  pleasantry  of  the  wag. 

As  explorers  and  pioneers,  the  Irish  have  been  as  ad 
venturous  and  successful  as  any  others  in  Canada.  As 
lumbermen,  they  have  pushed  far  in  advance  of  the  foot¬ 
steps  of  civilisation.  Twenty-five  years  since  they  were  to 
be  found  in  the  forests  along  the  banks  of  the  Moira, 
wThich  empties  itself  into  the  Bay  of  Quinte,  cutting  down 
the  great  trees,  c  making  timber,’  then  guiding  it  down 
the  rapids,  and  bringing  it  to  Quebec.  And  among  the 
most  fearless  and  daring,  as  well  as  skilful,  of  the  navi¬ 
gators  of  the  tremendous  rapids  of  the  St.  Lawrence  are 
the  Irish.  The  Canadian,  though  dexterous  with  the  axe, 
is  occasionally  rather  apt  to  depend  on  his  prayers  in  a  mo¬ 
ment  of  emergency;  whereas  the  Irishman,  who,  to  say 
the  least,  is  fully  as  pious  as  the  Canadian,  acts  on  the 
wise  belief  that  Providence  helps  those  who  help  them¬ 
selves.  At  the  head  of  the  Ottawa,  which  is  the  great 
lumbering  centre  of  Canada,  the  Irish  have  principally 
settled  the  town  of  Pembroke,  in  which  reside  many  who, 
once  enterprising  lumbermen  and  bold  raftsmen,  are  now 
living  at  their  ease,  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  hard-earned 
wealth.  There  is  one  in  particular,  who  wTent  miles  up 
the  river  beyond  Pembroke,  and  brought  his  family  into 
the  almost  impenetrable  forest.  Twenty  years  ago  he  was 
a  raftsman,  earning  16  dollars  a  month,  and  he  is  now 
one  of  the  richest  men  on  the  river.  Within  twelve  miles 
of  Pembroke,  at  Fort  William,  a  station  belonging  to  the 


154 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


Hudson  Bay  Company,  the  keenest  competitors  with  the 
Company  in  the  purchase  of  furs  are  Irishmen.  Following 
up  the  Ottawa,  to  French  Biver,  which  empties  itself  into 
Lake  Huron,  along  that  river,  and  the  small  tributaries 
of  the  Ottawa,  arc  to  be  found  thriving  Irish  settlements 
of  not  more  than  six  years  date.  In  fact,  the  Irish  have 
penetrated  everywhere,  and  have  proved  themselves  bold 
and  self-reliant,  and,  even  perhaps  in  a  greater  degree 
than  the  other  nationalities,  have  displayed  the  most  won¬ 
derful  faculty  of  adapting  themselves  to  every  possible 
circumstance.  This  faculty,  whether  of  adapting  them¬ 
selves  to  natural  circumstances  or  to  political  institutions, 
specially  distinguishes  the  Irish  race. 


Throughout  the  cities  and  towns  of  Upper  Canada  the 
Irish  hold  an  eminent  position  in  every  profession,  and  in 
every  department  and  branch  of  industry;  and  in  the 
professions,  as  in  mercantile  life,  the  Catholics  already  en¬ 
joy  a  fair  share,  especially  when  their  former  poverty  and 
religious  faith  are  taken  into  account.  Indeed,  considering 
the  circumstances  under  which  so  many  of  the  Catholic 
Irish  of  the  towns  emigrated  to  Canada,  not  only  with 
little  means,  and  few  friends  to  help  them,  but  with  all 
manner  of  prejudice  arrayed  against  them,  they  have  done 
more  and  succeeded  better  than  those  of  any  other  creed 
or  nationality.  They  have  done  more  in  a  shorter  time, 
and  in  the  face  of  an  opposition  which  neither  the  English 
nor  Scotch,  nor  their  Protestant  brethren  knew  anything  of. 
There  is  not  a  town  in  Canada  in  which  there  are  not  to 
be  witnessed  instances,  equally  striking  and  honourable,  of 
the  progress  of  young  Irishmen,  who,  bringing  out  with 
them  a  few  pounds  at  most,  but  more  probably  a  few 
shillings,  are  now  extensive  traders,  enterprising  manufac¬ 
turers,  and  large  employers.  It  is  not  necessary  to  par- 


IN  THE  CITIES  OF  UPPER  CANADA. 


15S 


ticularise  by  individual  cases  ;  but  were  it  right  to  mention 
places  and  persons,  I  could  give  a  long  list  of  the  most 
gratifying  instances  of  the  results  of  unaided  industry 
and  unbefriended  energy.  I  was  much  struck,  when  walk¬ 
ing  with  a  friend  through  a  city  in  Western  Canada,  at 
observing  the  fine  ranges  of  buildings  for  commercial 
purposes  recently  erected,  or  being  then  put  up,  by 
Catholic  Irishmen,  with  whose  history  I  was  made  ac¬ 
quainted.  To  industry,  integrity,  and  sheer  mother  wit, 
they — not  a  few  of  them  poor  but  intelligent  lads,  who  came 
out  to  seek  their  fortunes — owed  everything  ;  to  human 
favour  or  patronage  they  were  not  indebted  to  the  value 
of  a  shilling.  One  of  these  Irishmen  had  studded  the 
country  with  young  traders,  whom  he  established  in  va¬ 
rious  directions,  and  nearly  all  of  whom  were  prospering. 
Another  was  then  on  his  way  to  Europe  to  purchase  his 
goods  direct  from  the  manufacturers,  instead  of  buying 
them  through  Canadian  houses  ;  and  his  calculation  was, 
that  he  would  save  from  1,500Z.  to  2,000£.  a  year  by  adopt¬ 
ing  this  plan.  When  he  landed  in  Canada  he  was  not 
master  of  twenty  dollars  in  the  world.  This  is  what  I  saw 
in  a  single  city,  and  that  by  no  means  the  most  extensive 
in  either  business  or  population. 

There  are  new  generations  of  Irishmen  rising  up  every 
day  in  Canada,  the  sons  of  men  of  humble  origin  or  modest 
beginning,  who,  having  pushed  their  way  successfully 
in  their  new  home,  sent  their  boys  to  college,  and  ‘  made 
gentlemen  of  them.’  As  lawyers,  doctors,  engineers, 
architects,  these  young  men  are  bringing  to  the  va¬ 
rious  professions  the  sturdy  energy  of  the  class  from 
wdiich  they  sprang,  and  are  vindicating  by  their  ability 
and  their  genius  the  intellectual  prestige  of  their  race. 
The  vrell-autlienticated  stories  told  of  the  fathers  of  young 
men  whom  I  saw  dressed  w7itli  all  the  elegance  indicative 
of  wealth  and  good  position,  and  wdiose  manners  corres¬ 
ponded  with  their  external  appearance,  sounded  like  a 


156 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


romance,  they  were  so  marvellous.  How  these  Irish  fath¬ 
ers  crossed  the  Atlantic  in  a  timber  ship,  and  landed  per- 
haps  at  Quebec  or  St.  John,  with  scarcely  enough  to  sup¬ 
port  them  for  a  week  ;  how  they  resolutely  turned  to 
the  first  work  that  offered,  caring  little  for  hardship  or 
drudgery  ;  how  they  never  looked  back,  but  ever  onwards  ; 
how  at  length  money  seemed  to  grow  under  their  touch, 
until  they  accumulated  property,  built  mansions,  pos¬ 
sessed  horses  and  carriages,  lived  in  splendour,  and  care¬ 
fully  fitted  their  children,  by  education  and  training,  for 
the  position  they  were  to  occupy,  as  the  gentry  of  the 
country !  But  in  their  histories  we  learn,  that  these  self- 
made  Irishmen,  these  successful  founders  of  prosperous 
families,  the  creators  of  all  this  prosperity  and  splendour, 
never  clouded  their  bright  Celtic  intellect,  or  brutalised 
their  genial  and  kindly  nature,  with  drink.  Not  that  they 
totally  abstained  from  the  use  of  stimulants,  perhaps  few  of 
them  did  ;  but  they  were  ‘  sober,  well-conducted  men.’ 

‘  As  a  rule,’  said  a  well-informed  friend,  ‘  till  within  the 
last  ten  or  twelve  years,  few  Irish  Catholics  of  respectable 
position,  or  with  even  moderate  means,  immigrated  to 
Canada.  Under  these  circumstances  it  tells  favourably  for 
the  country,  for  the  government  and  the  laws  of  Canada, 
and  for  the  enterprise,  industry,  and  perseverance  of  our 
people,  that  so  many  are  independent,  and  that  the  vast 
majority  enjoy  all  the  comforts  and  many  of  the  luxuries 
of  life. 

The  educational  system  of  Upper  Canada  is  in  every  way 
calculated  to  develop  the  intelligence  and  stimulate  the 
energies  of  the  rising  youth  of  the  country.  The  teaching 
is  practical  and  comprehensive,  and  the  administration 
appears  to  be,  so  far  as  I  could  ascertain,  just  and  impar¬ 
tial.  The  superior  colleges  of  Canada  turn  out  as  highly 
cultivated  young  men  as  are  to  be  found  in  any  part  of 
America,  or  in  the  oldest  universities  of  Europe.  And  in 
every  educational  institution — from  the  university  of  Toronto. 


TIIE  EDUCATION  SYSTEM. 


157 


in  wliicli,  under  tlie  presidency  of  a  distinguished  Irishman, 
I  witnessed  Irish  students  bearing  off  several  of  the  highest 
prizes  of  the  year,  to  the  humblest  village  school  through¬ 
out  British  America  and  the  United  States — the  brightness 
of  the  Irish  intellect  is  remarkable  indeed,  it  is  a  subject 
of  universal  observation  in  all  parts  of  America. 

The  facilities  which  the  public  school  laws  of  Upper 
Canada  offer  to  the  Catholics  for  obtaining  elementary  edu¬ 
cation  strictly  denominational,  may  be  thus  briefly  stated  : — - 

Two  or  more  Catholic  heads  of  families,  by  giving  notice 
(with  a  view  to  exemption  from  the  public  rate)  to  certain 
local  officers,  may  claim  the  right  to  establish  a  school  of 
their  own,  and  elect  their  own  trustees  for  its  management. 
The  supporters  of  this  school  are  not  only  exempt  from  the 
payment  of  all  rates  for  the  support  of  the  public  schools, 
but  the  law  guarantees  to  them  the  right  to  share,  half- 
yearly,  in  the  legislative  grant,  in  proportion  to  the  number 
of  children  they  may  educate.  They  also  receive  an  equal 
amount  to  whatever  sum  they  send  to  the  Government 
department  of  Education,  for  the  purchase  of  maps, 
globes,  school-prizes,  and  library  books.  These  library 
books  are  selected  by  a  Council,  of  which  the  Catholic 
Bishop  of  Toronto  is  a  member.  Many  of  the  books  are 
exclusively  Catholic  in  their  character,  and  the  trustees 
have  the  right  to  select  only  such  books  as  they  may 
prefer.  The  schools  are,  of  course,  subject  to  official  in¬ 
spection,  and  are  required  to  report  to  the  department ; 
which  is  only  right  and  fair,  considering  they  receive 
assistance  from  the  State,  through  officials  responsible  for 
the  proper  administration  of  the  public  money.  Every 
Catholic  school  may  claim  an  area  of  country  for  its  sup¬ 
porters  of  six  miles  in  diameter,  or  eighteen  miles  in 
circumference — that  is,  three  miles  in  all  directions  from 
its  school-house,  as  a  central  point.  All  supporters  of  the 
school  within  that  area  are  exempt  from  public  school 
taxation.  Here  is  the  practical  admission  of  a  just  prin- 


158 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


ciple — respect  for  conscientious  convictions  in  a  mattei 
most  vitally  affecting  the  interests  of  mankind. 

There  is  a  shadow,  a  dark  shadow,  in  this  bright  picture 
of  prosperity  and  progress — the  spirit  of  bigotry — the 
spirit  of  unnatural  hate.  It  is  expressed  in  one  pregnant 
word — Orangeism.  Pity  indeed  that  it  should  exist  in  that 
land  of  free  institutions  and  good  laws.  Pity  that  it  should 
mar  its  peace,  or  retard  its  progress.  Pity  that,  from  any 
reason,  motive,  or  object,  it  should  be  encouraged  by  any 
class.  Pity  that  it  is  not  trampled  inexorably  under  foot, 
not  by  harsh  enactment,  but  by  the  good  sense  and  right 
feeling  of  the  wise  and  the  patriotic,  acting  on  the  public 
mind  of  the  Protestant  portion  of  the  community.  Its 
influence  is  felt  in  every  department  of  public  and  private 
life,  if  not  in  all,  at  least  in  too  many  districts  of  Upper 
Canada.  Its  baneful  presence  is  perceptible  in  the  heart  of 
the  country  as  in  the  city  and  the  town.  I  know  that  many 
good  and  enlightened  Protestant  Irishmen — men  who  are 
staunch  to  their  faith,  for  which  they  would  face  any  dan¬ 
ger  or  endure  any  sacrifice — deplore  the  existence  of  this 
one  of  the  deadly  curses  of  our  Irish  people,  and  do  all  they 
possibly  can  to  neutralise  its  vemom,  and  counteract  its 
evil  influence.  I  believe  it  to  be  a  barrier  to  the  progress 
- — the  more  rapid  progress — of  Canada  ;  it  not  only  checks 
emigration,  but  it  also  induces  migration ;  it  prevents 
many  from  coming,  and — often  unconsciously — it  impels 
many  to  leave.  What  Canada  requires,  in  order  to  realise 
the  hopes  of  her  statesmen  and  her  patriots,  is  more  men 
and  women,  more  millions — not  of  the  kid-glove  school, 
but  of  the  strong,  the  vigorous,  and  the  resolute — of  the 
same  class  as  those  who  have  reclaimed  her  wastes,  built 
up  her  cities,  and  constructed  her  highways — those  sons 
and  daughters  of  toil,  without  whose  fructifying  labour 
there  can  be  no  progress,  no  civilisation.  Undoubtedly 
great  and  prosperous  as  is  this  sturdiest  of  the  offspring  of 


/ 


THE  POISON  OF  ORANGEISM 


159 


the  mother  country,  she  requires  some  additional  millions 
of  human  beings  ere.  she  expands  in  reality  to  the  full 
measure  of  her  new-coined  designation — the  Dominion  of 
Canada.  And  it  is  neither  wise  nor  patriotic,  in  any  class 
or  section  of  the  population,  from  any  motive  or  object 
whatever,  to  foster  or  encourage,  in  the  very  heart  of  the 
body  politic,  a  source  of  evil  which  bears  sufficiently  bitter 
fruit  at  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  and  at  both  sides  of 
the  Boyne — but  which,  by  the  waters  of  the  St.  Lawrence 
and  the  Ottawa,  should  be  doomed  to  wither  beneath  pub¬ 
lic  contempt.  Though  the  hearts  of  Irishmen  in  the  New 
World  instinctively  turn  to  each  other,  this  pestilent 
Orange  virus  keeps  them  apart.  There  is  their  old  country, 
which  they  love  in  common,  with  which  their  fondest  and 
dearest  memories  are  associated ;  but  this  evil  thing  is  so 
vicious,  so  full  of  rancour,  that  it  poisons  the  very  foun¬ 
tains  of  patriotic  emotions,  and  stimulates  to  hatred  rather 
than  to  love.  IJnder  ordinary  circumstances,  when  there  is 
nothing  to  give  life  to  this  Orange  feeling,  the  Irish  five  in 
harmony  together.  They  are  friends  and  neighbours,  and 
would  willingly  assist  each  other  in  adversity  or  distress. 
The  families  visit  and  blend  together ;  the  young  people 
grow  up  in  companionship,  most  likely  in  friendship ;  the 
old  people  gad  and  gossip  together ;  births  and  marriages 
and  deaths  are  matters  of  common  interest — nay,  not  a 
sorrow  or  pain  is  felt  in  one  home  but  excites  compassion 
and  sympathy  in  the  other.  But,  lo !  as  the  period  of  the 
Orange  festival  approaches — as  one  of  those  anniversaries 
of  past  strife,  of  battles  fought  nearly  two  hundred  years 
ago  in  Ireland,  comes  round — then  a  cloud  seems  to  grow 
and  gather  on  the  brow,  and  a  strange  transformation  takes 
place  :  the  open-hearted,  kindly  neighbour  of  yesterday  is 
not  to  be  recognised  in  that  downcast,  sullen  fellow,  who 
meets  the  Catholic  with  a  scowl,  if  not  a  curse ;  and  in  his 
wife,  or  daughter,  or  sister,  who  hurries  past  the  house  of 
the  Catholic  as  if  there  were  contagion  in  its  door-posts. 


ICO 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


one  finds  it  hard  to  trace  a  likeness  to  the  genial  matron 
who  so  agreeably  discussed  the  nameless  trifles  that  consti¬ 
tute  the  theme  of  friendly  gossip,  or  the  pleasant  damsel 
whose  laughter  made  music  in  the  family  circle.  When 
the  day  of  celebration  does  come,  the  Catholic  had  better 
avoid  his  Orange  neighbour — for  quarrels,  blows,  bloodshed, 
may  possibly  come  of  their  meeting ;  and  if  so,  alas !  deeper 
hate  and  greater  scandal — sadder  shame  to  those  who  bear 
an  Irish  name.  Possibly  the  crisis  passes  without  collision 
or  disturbance.  Happy  for  all  if  it  be  so ;  and  in  a  few 
days  after,  not  however  without  some  preliminary  shame¬ 
facedness,  the  former  relations  are  re-established,  and  all 
goes  on  as  before — until  the  accursed  anniversary  again 
darkens  the  brow  and  fills  the  heart  with  hate.  Terrible,  if 
not  before  man,  certainly  in  the  eyes  of  God,  is  the  re¬ 
sponsibility  of  those  who  keep  alive  the  memories  of  strife 
and  contention  which  should  be  left  to  slumber  in  the  grave 
of  the  past. 

Canada  has  a  splendid  future  before  her,  whatever  may 
be  her  form  of  government,  or  whatever  the  relations 
which,  in  the  course  of  time,  she  may  bear  to  the  mother 
country,  or  to  her  neighbour  the  United  States.  She 
abounds  in  natural  resources.  Millions  and  millions  of 
acres  of  good  land  are  yet  unoccupied,  more  are  still  unex¬ 
plored  ;  and  such  is  her  mineral  wealth,  that,  a  vast  popula¬ 
tion  should  be  employed  in  its  development.  Thus,  with  land 
almost  unlimited  in  extent,  mines  of  unquestionable  pro¬ 
ductiveness,  and  capabilities  within  herself  for  almost  every 
description  of  manufacturing  industry,  what  does  Canada 
require  in  order  to  be  really  great,  but  population — more 
millions  of  men  and  women  ?  But  she  must  rid  herself 
of  this  Orange  pestilence  ;  for  though  she  pays  her  workers 
liberally,  and  in  hard  silver,  which  knows  no  depreciation ; 
and  though  they  live  well,  taxation  being  small  and  prices 
of  all  necessaries  being  moderate,  still  their  tendency  is 
towards  the  other  side  of  the  Lakes  and  the  St.  Lawrence- 


THE  ONLY  DRAWBACK. 


161 


I  have  met  and  spoken  with  too  many  of  my  Catholic 
countrymen  in  Canada  not  to  know  that  this  Orange  feel¬ 
ing  is  a  cause  of  more  than  dissatisfaction — even  of  lurking 
discontent  :  it  is  the  one  thing  which,  reviving  the  recol¬ 
lections  of  old  persecution,  makes  the  Catholic  Irishman 
think  less  fondly  of  the  home  of  his  adoption  ;  it  is  like¬ 
wise,  I  believe,  one  of  the  causes  which  for  many  years  past 
has  diverted  emigration  into  another  and  a  broader  chan¬ 
nel.  For  Catholics,  I  can  say  their  dearest  wish  is  to  live 
in  amity  with  their  Protestant  neighbours.  They  admit  and 
feel  that  the  laws  are  just  and  good,  that  the  Government 
is  wise  and  paternal,  that  the  institutions  are  favourable  to 
the  fullest  liberty  ;  therefore  the  more  do  they  deplore  the 
existence  of  an  organisation  which  keeps  alive  an  evil  feel¬ 
ing  that  is  neither  suited  to  a  Christian  people  nor  favour¬ 
able  to  the  fuller  development  of  a  youthful  State.  I  write 
this  in  the  warmest  interest  in  a  country  to  which  so  many 
of  my  own  people  have  directed  their  wandering  footsteps, 
and  where  so  many  of  them  have  won  an  honourable  inde¬ 
pendence  by  the  exercise  of  tlie  noblest  qualities. 


162 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


Newfoundland  —  Monstrous  Policy — Bad  Times  for  the  Irish 
Papists — How  the  Bishop  saved  the  Colony — The  Cathedral  of 
St.  John’s— Evil  of  having  but  one  Pursuit — Useful  Efforts — The 
Plague  of  Dogs — Proposal  to  exterminate  the  ‘  Noble  Newfound¬ 
land  ’—Wise  Legislation— Reckless  Improvidence — Kindly  Rela¬ 
tions— Irish  Girls. 


HERE  is  not  within  the  circle  of  the  British  Empire  a 


|  more  interesting  colony  than  Newfoundland,  or  whose 
inhabitants  have  had  to  struggle  against  a  more  stupid 
and  perverse  policy  than  that  deliberately  adopted  towards 
it  by  the  Home  Government,  and  faithfully  enforced  by  its 
willing  representatives.  The  policy  of  this  day  is  to  stud 
the  earth  with  vigorous  offshoots  from  the  parent  stock, 
and  foster  them  into  sturdy  growth  by  the  gift  of  free  in¬ 
stitutions  ;  and  the  natural  result  of  a  policy  so  wise  and 
enlightened  is  this — that  there  being  no  wrongs  to  avenge, 
no  bitter  memories  to  cherish,  no  galling  restrictions  to 
chafe  or  irritate  the  public  mind,  the  colony  cheerfully 
bears  the  light  yoke  of  loyalty  to  the  mother  country, 
whose  manufactures  it  consumes,  whose  commerce  it  ex¬ 
tends,  whose  resources  it  developes,  and  whose  people  it 
enriches  and  employs.  But  the  policy  pursued  towards 
Newfoundland  was  the  very  opposite  to  everything  wise  and 
enlightened.  To  say  that  it  was  discouraging  would  not 
express  its  character  in  adequate  terms  :  it  was  rather  re¬ 
pressive,  if  not  actually  crushing.  The  absurd  idea  of  the 
wiseacres  of  that  day  was  to  make  of  Newfoundland  a 
mere  fishing-station,  and  of  St.  John’s  a  landing  place.  By 
the  treaty  of  Utrecht  the  British  obtained  the  island  from 


NEWFOUNDLAND— MONSTROUS  POLICY. 


163 


the  French  in  1713.  When  the  island  thus  came  into 
possession  of  its  new  masters,  it  contained  a  not  inconsi¬ 
derable  French  population,  to  whom  freedom  of  worship 
had  been  guaranteed  by  treaty  ‘as  far  as  the  laws  of  England 
permitted ; 9  and  so  successfully  did  the  Governor  of  the 
day  take  advantage  of  this  dangerous  proviso,  that  the  dis¬ 
gusted  French  Catholics  and  their  clergy  sold  their  property 
and  ‘  abandoned  ’  the  questionable  protection  of  the  con¬ 
querors.  The  French  Catholics  having  been  effectually 
god  rid  of,  their  Irish  brethren  became  the  objects  of  spe¬ 
cial  proscription.  The  following  order  wras  issued  by 
several  Governors  down  to  so  late  as  1765.  It  shows  the 
spirit  against  which  the  Irish  Catholic  had  to  contend  : 

For  the  better  preserving  the  peace,  preventing  robberies,  tumultuous 
assemblies,  and  other  disorders  of  wicked  and  idle  people  remaining  in 
the  country  during  the  winter,  Ordered — 

That  no  Papist  servant,  man  or  woman,  shall  remain  at  any  place 
where  they  did  not  fish  or  serve  during  the  summer. 

That  not  more  than  two  Papist  men  shall  dwell  in  one  house  during 
the  winter,  except  such  as  have  Protestant  masters. 

That  no  Papist  shall  keep  a  public-house,  or  sell  liquor  by  retail. 

That  the  masters  of  Irish  servants  do  pay  for  their  passage  home. 

Another  order,  addressed  to  the  magistrates  about  this 
time,  exhibits  the  fierce  spirit  of  persecution  in  a  manner 
still  more  striking. 

Whereas  you  have  represented  to  me  that  an  Irish  Papist,  a  servant,  a 
man  without  wife  or  family,  has  put  up  mark  posts  in  a  fishing-room 
within  your  district,  with  an  intent  to  build  a  stake  and  flakes  thereon, 
and  possess  the  same  as  his  right  and  property,  which  practice  being 
entirely  repugnant  to  the  Act  10  and  11  Wm.  III. 

I  do  therefore  authorise  you  to  immediately  cause  the  post  marks 
abovementioned  to  be  taken  down,  and  warn  the  person  so  offending 
not  to  presume  to  mark  out  any  vacant  fishing-room  again  as  his  pro¬ 
perty,  as  he  will  answer  the  contrary  at  his  peril.  lrou  are  also  to  warn 
other  Papists  from  offending  in  the  like  case,  as  they  will  answer  to 
the  contrary. 


Signed) 


T.  Byron.  Governor. 


164 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


But  Pat  was  irrepressible.  He  would  come  and  remain, 
and  prosper  too,  notwithstanding  that  he  was  fulminated 
against  in  order  and  proclamation,  and  though  the  fecun¬ 
dity  of  his  race  was  officially  deplored  as  a  great  and  em¬ 
barrassing  evil.  The  fact  was,  the  Irish  were  hard-working 
and  useful,  and  those  who  appreciated  their  value  encou¬ 
raged  their  coming  and  remaining,  despite  of  Governor, 
and  Fishing  Admiral,  and  Home  Government.  Wisdom 
slowly  dawned  on  the  benighted  authorities,  who  were  com¬ 
pelled  to  tolerate  what  they  could  not  prevent.  But  such 
was  the  state  of  things  in  the  colony  for  a  long  series  of 
years,  and  actually  within  the  memory  of  living  men,  that 
a  house  could  not  be  put  up,  or  even  thoroughly  repaired, 
without  the  sanction  of  the  Governor  !  The  wonder  should 
not  be  why  Newfoundland  has  not  made  more  rapid  strides 
than  it  has,  but  that  it  has  progressed  so  rapidly  as  it  has 
done.  ‘Let  no  one  blame  Newfoundland,  then,’  says  Dr. 
Mullock,*  ‘  for  not  having  hitherto  advanced  as  rapidly  as 
other  colonies.  I  boldly  assert  that  there  wTas  never  more 
energy  shown  by  any  people  than  by  the  inhabitants  of 
this  island.  The  Government  that  should  foster  them  con¬ 
sidered  them  intruders,  and  banished  them  when  it  could.’ 
The  gifted  Prelate  thus  completes  the  picture  : 

They  had  not  the  liberty  of  the  birds  of  the  air  to  build  or  repair 
their  nests — they  had  behind  them  the  forest  or  the  rocky  soil,  which 
they  were  not  allowed,  without  license  difficultly  obtained,  to  reclaim 
and  till.  Their  only  resource  was  the  stormy  ocean,  and  they  saw 
the  wealth  they  won  from  the  deep  spent  in  other  lands,  leaving  them 
only  a  scanty  subsistence.  Despite  of  all  this  they  have  increased 
twenty-fold  in  ninety  years,  have  built  towns  and  villages,  erected 
magnificent  buildings,  as  the  cathedral  in  St.  John’s,  introduced  tele¬ 
graphs,  steam,  postal,  and  road  communications,  newspapers,  every¬ 
thing,  in  fact,  found  in  the  most  civilised  countries,  and  all  this  on  a 
rugged  soil,  in  a  harsh  though  wholesome  climate,  and  under  every 
species  of  discouragement. 

*  Two  Lectures  on  Newfoundland,  delivered  at  St  Bonaventure's  Col¬ 
lege,  January  25  and  February  I,  1860,  by  the  Right  Rev.  Dr.  Mullock. 


BAD  TIMES  FOR  THE  IRISH  PAPISTS. 


ins 


We  have  seen  that  the  ‘Irish  Papist’  could  not  be  dis¬ 
couraged  out  of  the  country,  in  which  he  was  not  without 
the  ministration  of  the  priest,  who  though  he  had  no  fixed 
abode  in  the  Island,  usually  came  out  in  a  fishing-boat,  and 
so  diguised  as  to  escape  the  vigilance  of  the  hostile  author¬ 
ities.  Protestants  suffered  from  no  such  disadvantage. 
Their’s  was  the  recognised  religion  of  the  State,  and  its 
ministers  were  stationed  in  the  principal  settlements.  This 
indeed  was  the  state  of  things  throughout  the  continent  of 
America,  wherever,  in  fact,  the  British  power  was  recog¬ 
nised.  Catholics  were  under  a  ban,  hunted,  persecuted,  or 
grievously  discouraged,  while  Protestants  enjoyed  in  its 
fulness  the  advantages  of  a  protected  church  and  a  domi¬ 
nant  religion.  This  should  be  always  taken  into  considera¬ 
tion  when  estimating  the  progress  of  those  who  were  guilty, 
in  the  eyes  of  their  jealous  rulers,  of  the  double  offence  of 
being  Catholic  and  Irish. 

In  the  year  of  grace  1784  liberty  of  conscience  was  pro¬ 
claimed  in  Newfoundland,  and  the  Catholics  at  once  took 
advantage  of  the  boon.  In  that  year  the  Rev.  James 
O’Donnell,  c  the  founder  and  father  of  the  church  of  New¬ 
foundland,’  landed  in  the  island.  A  native  of  Tipperary,  he 
had  spent  a  large  portion  of  his  life  in  the  Irish  Franciscan 
Convent  of  Prague,  in  Bohemia,  and  afterwards  presided 
over  the  convent  of  his  order  in  Waterford,  and  subse¬ 
quently  as  the  provincial  of  the  order  in  Ireland.  He  was 
the  first  regularly  authorised  missioner  in  Newfoundland 
since  it  had  been  ceded  to  the  British  in  1713  ;  and  to  his 
wisdom,  firmness  and  sagacity  are  due  the  practical  settle¬ 
ment  of  the  Irish  in  that  colony.  The  following  document 
is  rather  a  strange  commentary  on  the  proclamation  of 
liberty  of  conscience  and  freedom  of  worship  of  six  years 
before.  It  was  written  by  Governor  Milbank,  in  answer  to 
an  application  by  Dr.  O’Donnell  for  leave  to  build  a  chapel 
in  one  of  the  out-ports  : — 


166 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


The  Governor  acquaints  Mr.  O’Donnell  that,  so  far  from  being  dis¬ 
posed  to  allow  of  an  increase  of  places  of  religious  worship  for  the 
Roman  Catholics  of  the  island,  he  very  seriously  intends ,  next  year,  tolay 
those  established  already,  under. particular  restrictions.  Mr.  O’Donnell 
must  be  aware  that  it  is  not  the  interest  of  Great  Britain  to  encourage 
people  to  winter  in  JVewfoundland,  and  he  cannot  be  ignorant  that  many 
of  the  lower  order  who  would  now  stay,  would,  if  it  were  not  for  the  con¬ 
venience  with  which  they  obtain  absolution  here,  go  home  for  it  at  least  once 
in  two  or  three  years ;  and  the  Governor  has  been  misinformed  if  Mr. 
O’Donnell,  instead  of  advising  their  return  to  Ireland,  does  not  rather 
encourage  them  to  winter  in  this  country. 

On  board  the  Salisbury,  St.  John’s.  Nov.  2,  1790. 

What  a  proclamation  of  intolerance  and  stupidity !  We 
doubt  if,  considering  the  period  at  which  the  world  had 
arrived,  there  was  ever  penned  a  more  discreditable  epistle. 
We  shall  now -see  how  this  cruel  mistrust  was  repaid  by  the 
distinguished  minister  of  religion  who  was  its  object. 

It  was  in  the  year  1799,  shortly  after  the  memorable 
Irish  Rebellion,  that  the  circumstance  occurred  which 
exhibited  in  the  most  conspicuous  manner  the  value  of  the 
influence  and  authority  of  a  zealous  and  courageous  pastor, 
and  the  wisdom  of  encouraging,  rather  than  discountenanc¬ 
ing,  the  presence  of  a  Catholic  clergyman  in  the  midst  of 
an  Irish  population.  Many  who  had  been  compelled  to 
fly  from  their  native  land  in  consequence  of  the  rising  of 
1798,  found  refuge  in  Newfoundland,  bringing  with  them 
the  exasperated  feelings  engendered  by  that  disastrous 
conflict ;  nor  was  the  state  of  things  in  the  colony  such  as 
to  soothe  the  bitter  hatred  which  they  cherished  in  their 
hearts.  Amongst  them  a  conspiracy  was  formed,  its  object 
being  the  destruction  of  the  Protestant  colonists  ;  and  such 
was  the  success  with  which  the  conspirators  pushed  their 
machinations,  and  they  secured  the  sympathy  and  pro¬ 
mised  co-operation  of  a  large  portion  of  the  regiment 
then  stationed  in  St.  John’s.  Their  plans  were  laid  with 
great  secrecy  and  skill,  and  the  day  was  appointed  for 
carrying  their  fatal  designs  into  execution.  The  time 


HOW  THE  BISHOP  SAVED  THE  COLONY.  107 

chosen  was  when  the  people  had  assembled  at  church,  and 
it  not  being  then  the  custom  for  the  military  to  carry 
arms  into  the  sacred  building,  it  was  considered  by  the 
conspirators  that  those  who  would  thus  go  unarmed  could 
not  offer  much  difficulty  in  the  execution  of  the  fearful 
plot.  Had  the  intended  rising  taken  place,  the  conse¬ 
quences  would  have  been  awful  ;  but  happily,  through 
the  vigilance  and  prudence  of  Bishop  O’Donnell — he  had 
been  appointed  Vicar  Apostolic  in  1794 — the  conspiracy 
was  defeated.  Having  been  apprised  of  what  was  con¬ 
templated,  he  at  once  informed  the  General  in  command 
of  the  danger  impending,  urging  him  to  deal  with  the 
soldiers,  and  undertaking  himself  to  deal  with  the  mis¬ 
guided  civilians  who  had  been  involved  in  the  guilty  pro¬ 
ject.  The  necessary  steps  were  taken,  the  contemplated 
rising  was  effectually  prevented,  and  Newfoundland  was 
saved  from  a  scene  of  horror  and  bloodshed  that  would  have 
formed  a  dark  blot  on  the  page  of  its  history.  The  Protes¬ 
tants  regarding  Bishop  O’Donnell  as  their  preserver,  under 
Providence,  naturally  felt  towards  that  prelate  an  intense 
feeling  of  gratitude  ;  and  the  British  Government,  whose 
representative  but  nine  years  before  wrote  him  the  miser¬ 
able  letter  just  quoted,  recognised  his  great  services  by  a 
pension — a  very  small  one  it  is  true — which  was  continued 
to  his  successors  for  some  time.  £  How  often,’  remarks  the 
friend  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  the  recollection  of  this 
important  incident  in  the  life  of  the  good  Bishop,  ‘have 
the  clergy  of  the  Catholic  Church,  as  in  this  instance, 
heaped  coals  of  fire  on  the  heads  of  their  opponents,  and 
rebuked  the  blind  intolerance  of  the  persecutors  of  their 
faith !  ’ 

The  days  of  systematic  discouragement  had  passed  for 
ever.  ‘  The  English  Government,’  says  Dr.  Mullock, 
‘tacitly  recognised  the  population  of  Newfoundland  as 
having  a  right  to  live  in  the  land  they  had  chosen.’  But 
there  was  hard  work  in  store  for  the  zealous  missionary  ; 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


1G8 

and,  indeed,  it  required  all  tlie  efforts  of  the  ministers  of 
religion,  Protestant  and  Catholic,  to  extirpate  the  poison 
of  infidelity  which  the  works  of  Paine,  then  extensively 
circulated  and  read,  had  spread  through  the  colony.  The 
mission  was  a  laborious  and  a  rude  one  at  best ;  and  in 
the  seventieth  year  of  his  age  Dr.  O’Donnell  resigned  his 
charge  to  Dr.  Lambert,  and  sought  repose  in  his  native 
land,  where  he  died  four  years  afterwards,  and  was  buried 
in  the  parish  chapel  of  Clonmel.  Drs.  Scallan  and  Flem¬ 
ming  succeeded  Dr.  Lambert,  and  preceded  the  present 
Bishop,  Dr.  Mullock,  a  man  of  great  energy  of  character, 
highly  cultivated  mind,  intense  zeal  for  the  promotion  of 
religion  and  education,  and  ardently  devoted  to  the  mate¬ 
rial  progress  of  his  people.  There  is  now  a  second  bishop 
in  the  island,  Dr.  Dalton,  whose  cathedral  is  at  Harbour 
Grace. 

The  population  being  chiefly  engaged  in  the  fisheries, 
are  necessarily  scattered  along  the  sea  coast.  The  labours 
of  the  missionaries  are  consequently  very  arduous,  they 
being  often  compelled  to  travel  by  water  in  small  boats  at 
the  most  inclement  seasons  ;  while  in  many  parts  of  the 
island,  owing  to  the  imperfect  nature  of  the  roads,  land 
travel  imposes  on  priestly  zeal  penalties  no  less  severe. 
Still,  so  great  and  increasing  are  the  efforts  made  by  the 
clergy,  that  there  are  few  of  their  flock  beyond  the  reach 
of  their  ministrations.  The  devotedness  of  the  pastors 
is  thoroughly  responded  to  by  the  fidelity  of  their  flocks. 
It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  in  no  part  of  the  world 
is  there  a  more  complete  union  of  clergy  and  people  than 
exists  between  the  Catholic  people  and  clergy  of  New¬ 
foundland.  If  we  consider  the  vast  undertakings  which 
have  been  brought  to  a  successful  termination  by  a  Catho¬ 
lic  population  not  much  exceeding  60,000  souls  in  all,  we 
cannot  but  be  surprised  at  the  -wonderful  liberality  and  zeal 
of  the  people,  and  at  the  influence  exercised  over  them  by 
the  Bishop  and  his  clergy.  The  value  of  the  church  pro- 


THE  CATHEDRAL  OF  ST.  JOHN’S. 


K9 


perty,  including  churches,  parochial  residences,  convents, 
& c.,  is  httle  short  of  200,000/.  In  St.  John’s  alone  ifie 
value  of  their  property  is  estimated  at  over  150,000/.  In 
this  is  included  the  cost  of  the  cathedral,  one  of  the 
noblest  structures  to  be  found  at  the  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic.  To  raise  this  magnificent  temple,  the  generous 
colonists  subscribed  the  enormous  sum  of  120,000/.  Were 
Governor  Milbank  now  in  the  flesh,  and  were  he  to  stand 
on  the  floor  of  that  great  cathedral,  glance  up  to  its  lofty 
roof,  cast  his  eyes  round  at  the  beautiful  works  of  art 
brought  from  the  most  famous  studios  of  Rome,  and  then 
remember  his  famous  letter  to  Dr.  O’Donnell — so  coolly 
insolent  and  so  haughtily  contemptuous — he  might  well 
feel  ashamed  of  himself,  and  the  Government  whose 
miserable  policy  he  represented  ;  and  also  learn  how  im¬ 
possible  it  is  to  destroy  a  living  faith,  or  crush  a  genuine 
race.  It  was  only  fifty  years  after  that  letter  was  written 
that  the  idea  of  erecting  this  stupendous  cathedral  was 
conceived  by  the  Bishop  of  that  day,  the  Right  Rev.  Dr. 
Flemming.  Few  save  the  Bishop  himself  dared  to  hope 
that  any  one  then  living  would  ever  worship  within  its 
walls  ;  but,  strange  to  say,  from  the  commencement  of  the 
work  its  progress  was  never  interrupted  from  want  of 
funds,  and  in  the  comparatively  short  space  of  ten  years  it 
was  so  far  advanced  as  to  admit  of  the  Holy  Sacrifice  being 
offered  up  under  its  roof.  Dr.  Flemming  lived  long  enough 
to  see  all  doubts  removed — not  from  his  mind,  for  he  never 
entertained  one  on  the  subject — as  to  the  ultimate  accom¬ 
plishment  of  his  object ;  and  in  leaving  the  completion  of 
the  great  work  to  his  successor,  he  knew  that  in  the  piety 
and  indomitable  zeal  of  Dr.  Mullock  there  was  the  best 
guarantee  for  its  speedy  and  splendid  completion.  Dr, 
Mullock  received  it  a  mere  shell — a  magnificent  exterior, 
it  is  true,  but  nothing  more  ;  everything  within  remained 
to  be  done.  Taking  hold  of  the  work,  as  it  were,  with  a 
strong  hand  and  a  determined  will,  Bishop  Mullock  went 


170 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


forward  with  such  vigour,  that  in  the  year  1855  its  com¬ 
pletion  was  inaugurated  by  a  solemn  consecration,  at  which 
several  of  the  most  eminent  prelates  of  the  American 
church  were  present.  The  Bishop  not  only  completed  this 
grand  edifice,  but,  in  the  true  Catholic  spirit,  he  enriched 
it  with  the  choicest  works  of  art,  rightly  thinking  that 
the  efforts  of  human  genius  cannot  be  more  fittingly  em¬ 
ployed  than  in  doing  honour  to  the  Creator  of  man — the 
Author  of  liis  power,  and  strength,  and  genius  ;  and  that 
by  the  aid  of  the  productions  of  the  painter  and  the  sculp¬ 
tor  the  mind  may  be  lifted,  or  assisted  to  rise,  above  the 
worldly  cares  and  vulgar  thoughts  which  are  too  often 
brought  to  the  very  porch  of  the  temple. 

Within  the  area  of  the  ample  space  on  which  the  cathe¬ 
dral  stands,  are  erected  the  Presentation  Convent  and  the 
schools  attached,  the  Orphanage,  the  Convent  of  Mercy, 
the  College  of  St.  Bonaventure,  and  the  Episcopal  Palace 
• — all  worthy  of  being  associated  with  the  noble  structure 
which  is  the  centre  of  the  whole.  These  institutions,  now 
entirely  free  from  debt,  have  been  erected  during  the 
spiritual  rule  of  Dr.  Mullock,  who  thus  completed  the 
great  design  of  which  the  cathedral  was  only  the  practical 
commencement. 

At  Biver  Head  another  imposing  church,  only  second  in 
grandeur  to  the  cathedral  of  St.  John’s,  is  now  in  progress 
of  erection  ;  and  at  Harbour  Grace,  Dr.  Dalton  is  engaged 
in  the  serious  undertaking  of  enlarging  his  cathedral,  which 
has  long  since  been  too  small  for  his  increasing  congrega¬ 
tion.  In  his  diocese,  and  with  smaller  resources,  and  a 
more  limited  field  of  action,  this  zealous  prelate  is  rivalling 
the  successful  energy  of  his  distinguished  brother  of  St. 
John’s  Besides  the  two  convents  in  the  capital,  there  are 
twelve  branch  houses  in  other  parts  of  the  island,  and  these 
are  in  a  great  degree  devoted  to  the  training  of  the  female 
children  of  the  Catholic  population.  The  Catholics  of  St. 
John’s  have  no  educational  grievance  to  complain  of.  The 


EVIL  OF  HAVING  BUT  ONE  PURSUIT. 


171 


principle  on  which  the  system  is  based  is  that  of  allowing 
to  each  religious  denomination  the  education  of  its  own 
youth — an  arrangement  which  marvellously  simplifies  mat¬ 
ters,  and  removes  every  possible  excuse  for  mischievous 
meddling,  or  collision  of  any  kind.  More  than  one  hundred 
students  are  receiving  a  first-class  collegiate  education  in 
the  College  of  St.  Bonaventure,  such  as  to  prepare  them  to 
maintain  an  honourable  position  in  the  various  walks  of 
life  for  which  they  may  be  destined  ;  and  in  the  same 
institution  the  candidates  for  holy  orders  are  prepared  for 
the  priesthood,  the  design  of  the  bishop  being  to  recruit 
the  ranks  of  the  clergy  from  amongst  the  natives  of  the 
colony,  Ireland  having  hitherto  supplied  all  the  priests  for 
the  mission. 

The  zeal  and  fidelity  of  the  Irish  Catholics  of  Newfound¬ 
land  may  be  estimated  by  the  great  things  they  have  done 
for  their  church,  notwithstanding  limited  resources  and 
original  discouragement.  Whenever  a  great  work  is  to  be 
done,  every  one  assists  according  to  his  means  ;  and  where 
money  cannot  be  subscribed,  the  full  equivalent  is  freely 
given  in  work  and  labour.  So  thoroughly  identified  are 
the  people  with  the  cause  to  be  promoted,  that  in  a  whole 
parish  a  single  defaulter  is  rarely  to  be  met  with !  But  if 
the  bishop  calls  on  his  flock  to  assist  him  in  one  of  those 
useful  undertakings  in  which  he  is  so  constantly  engaged, 
he  himself  is  the  first  to  afford  a  signal  example  of  libe¬ 
rality,  having  contributed  the  munificent  sum  of  10,00(V. 
out  of  his  own  resources  towards  the  works  of  his  pro¬ 
motion. 

Perhaps  the  great  evil  of  the  colony  is  the  almost 
exclusive  devotion  of  its  inhabitants  to  the  one  engrossing 
pursuit.  So  long  as  the  fisheries  are  prosperous  the  evil 
is  not  so  manifest ;  but  should  this  grand  resource  of  the 
island  prove  less  productive  than  usual,  intense  distress  is 
the  immediate  consequence,  there  being  little  else  to  fall 
back  upon.  Wdiat  agriculture  is  to  Ireland,  the  fisheries 


172 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA 


are  to  Newfoundland ;  and  while  Ireland  requires  the 
extension  of  manufacturing  industry  on  a  large  scale,  not 
only  as  a  means  of  constant  employment,  but  as  a  resource 
in  case  of  failure  of  crops,  Newfoundland  has  equal  need 
of  the  cultivation  of  its  soil  as  a  certain  source  of  pros¬ 
perity,  as  well  as  a  means  of  compensating  for  the  casual 
falling  off  in  the  staple  industry  of  the  colony.  The 
number  exclusively  engaged  in  agriculture  is  small,  and  is 
principally  confined  to  residents  hi  the  neighbourhood  of 
St.  John’s ;  not  that  the  land  in  that  vicinity  is  better  than 
elsewhere,  but  that  a  valuable  market  is  at  hand  for  the 
consumption  of  every  kind  of  animal  and  vegetable  pro¬ 
duce.  It  is  found  that  a  judicious  combination  of  fishing 
with  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  best  rewards  the  labourer ; 
and  efforts  are  now  being  made  to  induce  the  people  to  give 
more  attention  to  the  latter  pursuit.  A  whole  family  can 
seldom  find  full  employment  in  connection  with  the  fishery, 
and  one  of  the  advantages  of  the  other  mode  of  occupation 
is  that  it  provides  employment  for  labour  that  would  other¬ 
wise  be  waste.  The  importance  of  cultivating  the  soil  was 
never  fully  estimated  until  in  1847  the  mysterious  potato 
disease  appeared  in  Newfoundland,  as  it  did  in  so  many 
regions  of  the  earth.  The  distress  caused  by  this  event 
showed  how  valuable  had  been  that  fruitful  crop,  for  which 
the  nature  of  the  soil  seems  peculiarly  adapted.  So  viru¬ 
lent  was  the  disease  in  the  year  mentioned,  that  it  appears 
to  have  left  its  sting  ever  since  ;  for  blight,  or  partial  failure, 
has  been  of  frequent  occurrence  since  then,  and  even  as  late 
as  the  season  of  1866  it  assumed  a  marked  character.  Good 
oats  and  barley  are  raised  in  the  island,  but  they  are  not 
cultivated  to  the  extent  they  might  be.  In  fact,  farming 
in  Newfoundland  is  still  in  a  primitive  state,  few  per¬ 
sons  being  regularly  devoted  to  it  as  a  profession,  it  being 
regarded  rather  as  a  useful  auxiliary  to  the  great  staple 
industry  of  the  inhabitants,  than  as  a  valuable  source  of 
general  wealth.  The  Government  fully  appreciate  the 


USEFUL  EFFORTS — THE  PLAGUE  OF  DOGS. 


173 


importance  of  encouraging  tlie  people  to  adopt  the  culti¬ 
vation  of  the  land  as  a  fixed  and  settled  pursuit.  In 
former  times  it  was  difficult  to  obiain  a  licence  from  the 
Governor  of  the  day  to  till  any  portion  of  the  soil :  but  in 
18G6  an  Act  was  passed  offering  to  the  poor  cultivator  a 
bonus  of  eight  dollars  for  every  acre  up  to  six  acres  cleared 
and  fitted  for  crops,  besides  a  free  grant  of  the  land  itself. 
As  thousands  of  acres,  suited  for  cultivation,  may  be  had 
in  various  parts  of  the  island  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the 
liberal  policy  of  the  Colonial  Ge  vernment  may  be  crowned 
with  success.  Fisheries,  however  bountiful,  or  even  in¬ 
exhaustible,  are,  from  natural  causes  altogether  beyond 
the  control  of  man,  necessarily  more  or  less  precarious ; 
and  it  is  wise  statesmanship  as  well  as  true  patriotism  to 
try  and  lay  the  foundation  of  a  great  branch  of  industry 
which,  while  adding  to  the  wealth  of  the  community,  may 
form  the  best  resource  against  unexpected  calamity. 

Efforts  are  also  made  to  encourage  the  breeding  of 
sheep,  for  which  the  climate  and  soil  seem  eminently 
suited.  The  attention  of  the  Agricultural  Society  is  being 
devoted  to  the  subject,  and  with  some  success.  But  Bishop 
Mullock  insists  that  unless  relentless  war  be  waged  against 
the  dogs  of  the  colony,  sheep-farming  will  be  a  matter  of 
impossibility.  To  destroy,  at  one  fell  swoop,  the  noble 
breed  of  dogs  which  have  done  much  to  make  Newfound¬ 
land  known  to  the  world — to  annihilate  the  splendid  brute 
so  remarkable  for  courage,  sagacity,  and  fidelity — may 
appear  to  be  a  proposal  worthy  of  a  Draco,  and  might  well 
stimulate  the  indignant  genius  of  the  poets  of  the  universe  ; 
but  the  Bishop  makes  out  a  strong  case,  which  he  may  be 
allowed  to  put  in  his  own  words  : — 

We  lnve,  says  Dr.  Mullock,  the  means  of  raising  on  our  wild  pastures 
millions  of  that  most  useful  animal  to  man — the  sheep.  On  the 
southern  and  western  shore,  indeed  everywhere  in  the  island,  I  have 
seen  the  finest  sheep  walks;  and  what  is  better,  the  droppings  of  the 
sheep  in  this  country  induce  a  most  luxuriant  crop  of  white  clover, 


in 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


and  prevent  the  spread  of  bog  plants.  If  sheep  were  encouraged,  we 
should  have  fresh  meat  in  abundance,  and  their  fleece  would  furnish 
warm  clothing  in  the  winter  for  our  people,  of  a  better  quality  than 
the  stuff  they  now  buy,  ‘half  waddy  and  devil's  dust,’  and  which 
impoverishes  them  to  procure'  it.  Domestic  manufactures  would  be 
encouraged,  the  people  would  become  industrious  and  comfortable, 
and  every  housewife  in  our  out-harbours  would  realise,  in  some  sort, 
that  sublime  description  of  a  valiant  woman  by  Solomon,  Prov.  xxxi., 
4  she  hath  put  out  her  hands  to  strong  things,  and  her  fingers  have 
taken  hold  of  the  spindle  ;  she  has  sought  wool  and  flax  and  hath 
wrought  by  the  counsel  of  her  hands  ;  she  shall  not  fear  for  her  house 
in  the  cold  of  snow,  for  all  her  domestics  are  clothed  with  double 
garments ;  she  hath  looked  well  to  the  paths  of  her  house  and  hath 
not  eaten  her  bread  idle  ;  her  children  rose  up  and  called  her  blessed  ; 
her  husband  had  praised  her.’  But,  unfortunately,  this  great  blessing 
of  sheep  pasture  is  marred  by  one  curse,  .and  idleness  and  poverty  are 
too  often  the  accompaniments  of  the  poor  man's  fireside  in  the  long 
winter— as  long  as  a  vicious  herd  of  dogs  are  allowed  to  be  kept  in  the 
country ,  so  long  will  poverty  be  the  winter  portion  of  the  poor.  In  no 
other  part  of  the  world  would  such  an  iniquity  be  permitted.  There  is  a 
law  offering  5 1.  for  the  destruction  of  a  wolf,  and  I  never  have  heard 
of  51.  worth  of  mutton  being  destroyed  by  wolves  since  the  days  of 
Cabot;  but  why  do  not  our  legislators,  if  they  have  the  interest  of 
the  people  at  heart  (and  according  to  their  election  speeches,  every 
member  is  actuated  by  the  most  philanthropic  and  patriotic  motives); 
pass  and  enforce  a  law  against  dogs,  which  devour  every  sheep  they 
can  find,  and  have  almost  exterminated  the  breed  altogether  ;  for  no 
one  will  keep  sheep  while  his  neighbour  is  allowed  to  keep  wolves. 

Nor  are  the  Bishop’s  reasons  for  thus  preaching  a  war  of 
extermination  exhausted  in  the  passage  quoted ;  he  con¬ 
demns  the  use  of  dogs  in  drawing  firewood,  the  dogs  being 
assisted  in  their  labour  by  stalwart  men  yoked  to  the  same 
car.  The  Bishop  wisely  remarks  that  one  horse  would  do 
the  work  of  one  hundred  dogs,  and  be  always  useful ;  and 
the  man  who  could  not  keep  a  horse,  might  hire  his 
neighbour’s  for  a  few  days,  at  an  expense  far  less  than  what 
he  wastes  in  boots  and  clothes.  The  Bishop  apprehends 
that  his  remarks  may  prove  unpalatable ;  but  he  has  tlio 
interests  of  the  people  too  much  at  heart  to  conceal 
his  sentiments  on  a  subject  of  such  vital  importance  to 


WISE  LEGISLATION. 


175 


them,  and  he  asserts  that  ‘religion,  education,  civilization, 
are  all  suffering  from  this  curse  of  dogs,  worse  than  all  the 
plagues  of  Egypt  to  this  unfortunate  country.’  The  lec¬ 
tures  from  which  these  strong  passages  are  quoted  were 
delivered  in  1860  ;  but  I  am  not  aware  how  far  he  was 
successful  in  turning  the  public  sentiment  in  favour  of 
sheep  and  against  their  implacable  enemy,  ‘the  noble 
Newfoundland.’  The  reader  will  perceive  that  this  Irish 
Bishop  is  as  vigorous  as  a  reformer  of  abuse  and  promoter 
of  material  improvement,  as  he  is  energetic  as  a  founder  of 
religious  and  educational  institutions,  and  builder  of  cathe¬ 
drals.  There  is  a  genuine  ring  in  this  comprehensive  coun¬ 
sel  :  ‘  My  earnest  advice  would  be,  kill  the  dogs,  introduce 
settlers,  encourage  domestic  manufactures,  home-made 
linen  and  home-spun  cloth,  and  Newfoundland  will  be¬ 
come  the  Paradise  of  the  working  man.’ 

The  mineral  capabilities  of  the  country  are  now  attract¬ 
ing  attention,  and  promise  to  prove  an  important  element 
in  its  resources.  A  mineralogical  survey,  instituted  by  the 
Government,  is  in  progress,  and  the  results  already  estab¬ 
lished  justify  considerable  expectations.  A  copper  mine  is 
in  successful  operation  ;  and  besides  copper,  lead  and  coals 
are  known  to  exist  in  several  parts  of  the  island.  The 
Government  afford  every  encouragement  to  mining  enter¬ 
prise.  For  a  fine  of  51.  any  one  may  obtain  a  licence  of 
search  over  three  square  miles,  and  at  any  time  within  two 
years  he  can*  select  from  the  tract  over  which  his  licence 
extends  one  square  mile,  for  which  he  becomes  entitled  to 
a  grant  in  fee,  the  only  further  charge  being  a  royalty  of 
2J  per  cent,  for  the  first  five  years’  working.  With  such 
liberal  terms  on  the  part  of  the  Government,  aided  by  the 
valuable  information  which  their  survey  is  likely  to  diffuse, 

1 1  may  fairly  be  expected  that  the  latent  mineral  wealth  of 
Newfoundland  may  ere  long  afford  employment  to  many 
liousands  of  its  population. 

The  Irish  portion  of  the  colonists  are  not  in  any  respect 


17G 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


inferior  to  their  neighbours  of  other  nationalities.  Whether 
in  the  professions,  as  merchants  and  traders,  or  as  daring 
and  successful  fishermen,  they  enjoy  an  enviable  position, 
and  maintain  the.  highest  character.  For  their  numbers  the 
Irish  men  of  business  represent  as  large  an  amount  of 
wealth  as  any  other  class  in  the  colony,  and  in  influence 
and  general  repute  they  are  not  second  to  those  with  whom 
they  are  associated.  In  the  Government  the  Catholic 
element  is  adequately  felt,  and  the  right  of  Catholics  to 
the  enjoyment  of  their  legitimate  influence  is  not  ques¬ 
tioned  even  by  the  most  extreme  of  their  opponents. 
‘  They  have/  says  a  distinguished  Catholic  layman,  ‘  their 
full  measure  of  equal  privileges,  *and  neither  their  country 
nor  their  creed  is  a  bar  to  advancement  in  any  of  the  walks 
of  life.’ 

In  daring  and  energy  in  the  prosecution  of  their  adven¬ 
turous  pursuit,  the  Irish  are  in  every  respect  equal  .to  the 
other  fishermen  who  hunt  the  seal,  or  capture  the  cod  and 
ling  of  the  great  bank.  Indeed  it  would  be  difficult  to  see 
anywhere  a  body  of  men  more  full  of  life,  vigour,  and 
intelligence,  than  may  be  found  issuing  from  the  Catholic 
cathedral  any  Sunday  in  those  portions  of  the  year  when 
the  fishermen  are  at  home.  There  is,  however,  one  thing 
to  be  regretted — that  the  money  so  gallantly  earned  is  not 
always  wisely  spent.  It  is  a  matter  of  regret  that  the 
nature  of  the  fisheries  is  such  as  to  leave  long  intervals  of 
unemployed  time  at  the  disposal  of  those  engaged  in  them, 
and  this  is  especially  felt  when  the  fisheries  are  unpro¬ 
ductive.  In  prosperous  seasons  the  earnings  of  the  men 
are  sufficient  for  their  suppc  rt  for  the  year  ;  but  this 
facility  of  earning  money  has  its  disadvantages,  particu¬ 
larly  in  inducing  a  spirit  of  recklessness  and  habits  of 
extravagance,  which  not  unfrequently  tend  to  much  misery. 
It  is  no  uncommon  thing  in  the  seal  fishery  for  a  man  to 
earn  20/.,  30/.,  or  even  more,  in  a  month  or  five  weeks  ; 
but,  alas !  it  often  goes  as  rapidly  as  it  is  acquired.  This, 


RECKLESS  IMPROVIDENCE — KINDLY  RELATIONS. 


177 


tmf or  innately  for  the  world  at  large,  is  a  common  result 
with  money  so  rapidly  earned ;  but  in  Newfoundland  there 
is  the  superadded  evil  of  long  intervals  of  idleness,  during 
which  the  once  jovial  sinner  mourns,  in  sackcloth  and  ashes 
and  unavailing  repentance,  the  follies  of  his  prosperous 
hours.  The  Irish,  perhaps,  are  not  worse  than  others  in 
their  spirit  of  recklessness,  and  their  habits  of  baneful 
indulgence  ;  but  certainly  they  are  not  better  than  their 
neighbours  in  this  respect.  Social,  impulsive,  and  gener¬ 
ous,  there  are  no  people  in  the  world,  Newfoundland  in¬ 
cluded,  whom  self-restraint  would  benefit  more  than  those 
of  Irish  birth  or  origin. 

Even  so  far  back  as  the  commencement  of  the  century, 
the  Irish  merchants  had  taken  a  prominent  position  in  the 
colony ;  and  in  1806  the  Benevolent  Irish  Society  was 
formed — an  institution  which  had  for  its  object  the  relief 
of  the  distressed  without  any  distinction,  and  the  fostering 
of  national  feeling  and  spirit.  The  promoters  were  some 
of  the  foremost  men  in  the  colonv,  Protestants  and  Catho- 
lies,  between  whom  the  most  friendly  relations  existed ;  and 
the  meetings  and  proceedings  of  this  body  did  no  little  to 
influence  the  tone  and  temper  of  the  community  at  large. 
Its  annual  celebrations  of  St.  Patrick’s  Bay,  in  which  men 
of  all  creeds  and  countries  participated,  were  held  in  great 
esteem,  as  much  for  the  kindly  sentiments  they  encouraged, 
as  for  the  social  enjoyment  they  were  always  certain  to 
afford.  This  society,  after  a  life  of  sixty  years,  is  still  in 
existence  ;  and  not  only  does  it  fulfil  its  mission  of  benevo¬ 
lence  in  the  same  spirit  in  which  it  was  founded,  but  its 
annual  reunions  continue  to  be  an  agreeable  feature  in  the 
festivities  of  St.  John’s. 

Newfoundland  may  look  in  vain  for  a  grievance ;  but 
should  it  discover  one,  it  has  the  means  within  itself  of 
quickly  setting  it  at  rest.  Its  inhabitants  of  all  denomina¬ 
tions  enjoy  in  unimpaired  fulness  the  blessings  of  civil 
and  religious  freedom  :  there  are  no  h massing  and  vexa- 


178 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


tious  meddlings  witli  education  ;  and  if  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  population  do  not  occupy  tlie  soil  by  the 
best  of  all  tenures,  the  fault  does  not  lie  with  those  who 
legislate  for  and  govern  them.  That  a  good  understanding 
between  all  classes  of  the  community  is  the  result  of  just 
laws  wisely  administered,  we  may  take  the  conclusive 
evidence  of  Dr.  Mullock,  who  thus  bears  witness  to  its 
existence  : — 

Allow  me  to  say  a  few  words  of  my  experience  of  the  people  :  I  have 
found  them,  in  all  parts  of  the  island,  hospitable,  generous,  and  obliging  ; 
Catholics  and  Protestants  live  together  in  the  greatest  harmony,  and  it  is 
only  in  print  we  find  anything,  except  on  extraordinary  occasions,  like 
disunion  among  them.  I  have  always,  in  the  most  Protestant  districts, 
experienced  kindness  and  consideration — I  speak  not  only  of  the  agents 
of  the  mercantile  houses,  who  are  remarkable  for  their  hospitality  and 
attention  to  all  visitors,  or  of  magistrates,  but  the  Protestant  fishermen 
were  always  ready  to  join  Catholics  in  manning  a  boat  when  I  required 
it,  and  I  am  happy  to  say  that  the  Catholics  have  acted  likewise  to  their 
clergymen.  It  is  a  pleasing  reflection  that  though  we  are  not  immacu¬ 
late,  and  rum  sometimes  excites  to  evil,  still,  out  of  a  population  of  over 
130,000,  we  have  rarely  more  than  eight  or  ten  prisoners  in  gaol,  and 
grievous  crimes  are,  happily,  most  rare,  capital  offences  scarcely  heard  of. 

From  a  communication  which  I  have  received  from  an 
eminent  citizen  of  St.  John’s,  to  whose  kindness  I  am  much 
iudebted,  I  take  the  following  passage  : — 

‘The  Irish  girls  “to  the  manner  born,”  are  almost  extinct  in  this 
island,  emigration  for  many  years  past  having  almost  entirely  ceased. 
But  the  Irish  of  native  growth  are,  as  a  class,  intelligent,  well-developed, 
and  industrious.  Immoralityns  rare  among  them,  as  may  be  shown  by  a 
record  of  last  years  births  in  St.  John’s,  from  which  it  appears  that  of  725 
births,  12  only  were  illegitimate,  or  less  than  two  per  cent,  of  the  whole. 
This,  too,  is  not  an  exceptional  year,  but  may  be  taken  as  a  fair  criterion 
of  the  morality  of  the  Irish  girls.  The  educational  labours  of  the  Nuns 
are  doing  much  to  preserve  the  virtue  of  the  female  youth  '  and  no¬ 
where  are  these  holy  women  more  valued  than  here.’ 


CHAPTER  X. 


The  Irish  Exodus — Emigration,  its  Dangers  by  Sea  and  Land- 
Captain  and  Crew  well  matched — How  Things  were  done  Twenty 
Years  since — The  Emigration  Commission  and  its  Work — Land- 
sharks  and  their  Prey — Finding  Canal  Street — A  Scotch  Victim 
— The  Sharks  and  Cormorants— Bogus  Tickets — How  the  ‘  Out¬ 
laws  ’  resisted  Reform — The  New  System — The  days  of  Bogus 
Tickets  gone — A  Word  of  Advice — Working  of  the  System — In¬ 
telligence  and  Labour  Department — Miss  Nightingale’s  Opinion — 
Necessity  for  Constant  Vigilance — The  last  Case  one  of  the  Worst. 

v  O 


rjlHERE  are  few  sadder  episodes  in  tlie  history  of  the 
X  world  than  the  story  of  the  Irish  Exodus.  Impelled, 
to  a  certain  degree,  by  a  spirit  of  adventure,  but  mainly 
driven  from  their  native  land  by  the  operation  of  laws 
which,  if  not  opposed  to  the  genius  of  the  people,  were  un- 
suitcd  to  the  special  circumstances  of  their  country,  mil¬ 
lions  of  the  Irish  race  have  braved  the  dangers  of  an  un¬ 
known  element,  and  faced  the  perils  of  a  new  existence, 
in  search  of  a  home  across  the  Atlantic.  At  times,  this 
European  life-stream  flowed  towards  the  New  World  in 
a  broad  and  steady  current ;  at  others,  it  assumed  the 
character  of  a  resistless  rush,  breaking  on  the  shores  of 
America  with  so  formidable  a  tide  as  to  baffle  every 
anticipation,  and  render  the  ordinary  means  of  humane  or 
sanitary  precaution  altogether  inadequate  and  unavailing. 

Different  indeed,  in  most  of  its  features,  is  the  emigration 
of  to-day  from  that  of  thirty,  or  twenty,  or  even  a  dozen 
years  since.  A  quarter  of  a  century  since,  and  much  later 
still,  the  emigrant  seemed  marked  out,  as  it  were,  as  the 
legitimate  object  of  plunder  and  oppression  ;  and  were  not 
the  frauds  of  which  these  helpless  people  were  made  the 
constant  victims,  matters  of  public  record,  and  against 
which  legislatures  at  both  sides  of  the  ocean  struggled,  and 


180 


THE  IRISH  LNT  AMERICA. 


for  a  time  ineffectually,  one  could  scarcely  credit  tlie  lengths 
to  which  those  who  lived  upon  plunder  carried  their  au¬ 
dacity.  Little  did  the  intending  emigrants  know  of  the 
difficulties  and  dangers  that  lay  in  their  path  in  every 
stage  of  their  momentous  journey  by  land  and  water,  by 
city  and  by  sea.  Little  knew  the  poor  mother,  as  she 
imparted  her  last  benediction  to  her  ‘boy  and  girl’ — the 
adventurous  pioneers  of  the  family — the  perils  that  lay  in 
her  children’s  way  ;  how  fraud  and  robbery,  and  in  friendly 
guise  too,  would  track  them  across  the  ocean,  perhaps 
sail  with  them  in  the  same  ship,  even  lie  with  them  in 
the  same  berth ;  and  how  nothing  short  of  the  inter¬ 
position  of  a  merciful  Providence  could  save  them  from 
utter  and  irremediable  ruin. 

The  ships,  of  which  such  glowing  accounts  were  read 
on  Sunday  by  the  Irish  peasant,  on  tlie  flaming  placards 
posted  near  the  chapel  gate,  were  but  too  often  old  and 
unseaworthy,  insufficient  in  accommodation,  without  the 
means  of  maintaining  the  most  ordinary  decency,  with  bad 
or  scanty  provisions,  not  having  even  an  adequate  supply 
of  water  for  a  long  voyage ;  and  to  render  matters  worse, 
they,  as  a  rule  rather  than  as  the  exception,  were  shame¬ 
fully  underhanded.  True,  the  provisions  and  the  crew 
passed  muster  in  Liverpool — for,  twenty  years  since,  and 
long  after,  it  was  from  that  port  the  greater  number  of 
the  emigrants  to  America  sailed ;  but  there  were  tenders 
and  lighters  to  follow  the  vessel  out  to  sea ;  and  over  the 
sides  of  that  vessel  several  of  the  mustered  men  would 
pass,  and  casks,  and  boxes,  and  sacks  would  be  expe¬ 
ditiously  hoisted,  to  the  amazement  of  the  simple  people, 
who  looked  on  at  the  strange,  and  to  them  unaccountable 
operation.  And  thus  the  great  ship,  with  its  living  freight 
would  turn  her  prow  towards  the  West,  depending  on  her 
male  passengers,  as  upon  so  many  impressed  seamen,  to 
handle  her  ropes,  or  to  work  her  pumps  in  case  of  accident, 
which  was  only  too  common  under  such  circumstances. 


THE  EXODUS— EMIGRATION  AS  IT  WAS. 


1S1 


What  with  bad  or  scanty  provisior  s,  scarcity  of  water, 
severe  hardship,  and  long  confinement  in  a  foul  den,  ship 
fever  reaped  a  glorious  harvest  between  decks,  as  frequent 
ominous  splashes  of  shot-weighted  corpses  into  the  deep 
but  too  terribly  testified.  Whatever  the  cause,  the  deaths 
on  board  the  British  ships  enormously  exceeded  the  mor¬ 
tality  on  board  the  ships  of  any  other  country.  For  in¬ 
stance,  according  to  the  records  of  the  Commissioners  of 
Emigration  for  the  State  of  New  York,  the  quota  of  sick 
per  thousand  stood  thus  in  1847  and  1848 — British  ves¬ 
sels,  30  ;  American,  9f  ;  Germans,  8f.  It  was  no  unusual 
occurrence  for  the  survivor  of  a  family  of  ten  or  twelve 
to  land  alone,  bewildered  and  broken-hearted,  on  the 
wharf  at  New  York  ;  the  rest — the  family — parents  and 
children,  had  been  swallowed  in  the  sea,  their  bodies  mark¬ 
ing  the  course  of  the  ship  to  the  New  World. 

But  there  were  worse  dangers  than  sickness,  greater 
calamities  than  death  and  a  grave  in  the  ocean,  with  the 
chance  of  becoming  food  for  the  hungry  shark.  There  was 
no  protection  against  lawless  violence  and  brutal  lust  on 
the  one  hand,  or  physical  helplessness  and  moral  prostra¬ 
tion  on  the  other.  To  the  clergyman,  the  physician,  and 
the  magistrate,  are  known  many  a  sad  tale  of  human  wreck 
and  dishonour,  having  their  origin  in  the  emigrant  sailing 
ship  of  not  many  years  since.  Even  so  late  as  1860,  an 
Act  w'as  passed  by  Congress  ‘to  regulate  the  carriage  of 
passengers  in  steamships  and  other  vessels,  for  the  better 
protection  of  female  passengers’;  and  a  single  clause  of 
this  Act,  which  it  is  necessary  to  quote,  is  a  conclusive 
proof  of  the  constant  and  daily  existence  of  the  most  fear¬ 
ful  danger  to  the  safety  of  the  poor  emigrant  girl.  Every 
line  of  the  clause  is  an  evidence  of  the  evil  it  endeavours 
to  arrest  : — 

That  eveiy  master  or  other  officer,  seaman,  or  other  person  em¬ 
ployed  on  board  of  any  ship  or  vessel  of  the  United  States,  who 
shall,  during  the  voyage  of  such  ship  or  vessel,  under  promise  of 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


Ib2 

marriage,  or  by  threats,  or  by  the  exercise  ol*  his  authority,  or  by 
solicitation,  or  the  making  of  gifts  or  presents,  seduce  .  .  .  any 

female  passenger,  shall  be  guilty  of  a  misdemeanour,  and  upon  con¬ 
viction  shall  be  punished  by  imprisonment  for  a  term  not  exceeding 
one  year,  or  by  a  fine  not  exceeding  one  thousand  dollars  ;  provided 
that  the  subsequent  intermarriage  of  the  parties  seducing  and  seduced 
may  be  pleaded  in  bar  of  conviction. 

It  is  further  provided,  by  the  second  clause,  that  neither 
officers,  nor  seamen,  nor  others  employed  on  board,  shall 
visit  or  frequent  any  part  of  such  ship  or  vessel  assigned 
to  emigrant  passengers,  except  by  direction  or  permission 
of  the  master  or  commander,  ‘first  made  or  given  for 
such  purpose.’  Forfeiture  of  his  wages  for  the  voyage  is 
the  penalty  attaching  to  any  officer  or  seaman  violating 
this  wholesome  rule  ;  and  the  master  or  commander  who 
shall  direct  or  permit  any  of  his  officers  or  seamen  to  visit 
or  frequent  any  part  of  the  ship  assigned  to  Emigrant 
passengers,  except  for  the  purpose  of  performing  some 
necessary  act  or  duty,  shall,  upon  conviction,  be  punished 
by  a  fine  of  50  dollars  for  each  separate  offence.  And  the 
master  or  commander  who  does  not  ‘post  a  written  or 
printed  notice,  in  the  English,  French,  and  German  lan¬ 
guages,’  containing  the  provision  of  the  foregoing  or  second 
section,  in  a  conspicuous  place  on  the  forecastle,  and  in  the 
several  parts  of  the  ships  assigned  to  emigrant  passengers, 
and  keep  it  posted  during  the  voyage,  shall  be  liable  to  a 
penalty  not  exceeding  500  dollars. 

This  is  a  wise  and  humane  Act,  passed  at  any  time  ;  but 
what  lives  of  shame  and  deaths  of  misery  would  it  not  have 
prevented  had  it  been  in  active  operation  for  the  last  quar¬ 
ter  of  a  century,  as  a  restraint  upon  lawless  brutality ! 

Before  leaving  the  ship  for  the  land*  it  may  not  be  out 
of  place  to  afford  the  reader,  through  the  testimony  of  a 
reliable  witness,  Mr.  Vere  Foster,  a  notion  of  the  maimer 
in  which  emigrants  were  treated  in  some  vessels,  the  dis¬ 
honesty  of  whose  owners  or  charterers  was  only  equalled  by 
the  ruffianism  of  their  officers  and  crews.  The  letter  from 


CAPTAIN  AND  CREW  WELL  MATCHED 


1 83 


which  the  extract  was  taken  was  published  in  1351  by 
order  of  the  House  of  Commons  ;  but  facts  similar  to  those 
described  by  Mr.  Foster  have  been  frequently  complained 
of  since  then.  The  ship  in  question  had  900  passengers 
on  board,  and  this  is  a  sample  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
luckless  people  were  supplied  with  a  great  necessary  of 
life  : — 


The  serving  out  of  the  water  was  twice  capriciously  stopped  by  the 
mates  of  the  ship,  who  during  the  whole  time,  without  any  provocation, 
cursed  and  abused,  and  cuffed  and  kicked,  the  passengers  and  their  tin 
cans,  and,  having  served  out  water  to  about  30  persons,  in  two  separate 
times,  said  they  would  give  no  more  water  out  till  the  next  morning,  and 
kept  their  word. 


A  very  simple  mode  was  adopted  of  economising  the 
ship’s  stores — namely,  that  of  not  issuing  provisions  of  any 
kind  for  four  days ;  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  following 
remonstrance,  it  is  probable  that  as  many  more  days  would 
have  passed  without  their  being  issued  : — 


It  inspected  Sin, — We,  the  undersigned  passengers  on  board  the  ship 

. paid  for  and  secured  our  passages  in  her  in  the  confident 

expectation  that  the  allowance  of  provisions  promised  in  our  contract 
tickets  would  be  faithfully  delivered  to  us.  Four  entire  days  having 
expired  since  the  day  on  which  (some  of  ns  having  been  on  board 
from  that  day,  and  most  of  us  from  before  that  day)  the  ship  was  ap¬ 
pointed  to  sail,  and  three  entire  days  since  she  actually  sailed  from 
the  port  of  Liverpool,  without  our  having  received  one  particle  of 
the  stipulated  provisions  excepting  water,  and  many  of  us  having 
made  no  provision  to  meet  such  an  emergency,  we  request  that  you  will 
inform  us  when  we  may  expect  to  commence  receiving  the  allowance 
which  is  our  due. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  know  in  wliat  manner  this  ap¬ 
plication  was  received  by  the  mild-mannered  gentleman 
in  command.  It  appears  that  captain  and  mate  were 
singularly  well-matched ;  indeed,  it  would  be  difficult  to 
decide  to  which  of  the  two  amiable  beings  the  merit  of 
gentleness  and  good  temper  should  be  awarded.  Mr. 


181 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


Foster  liras  describes  tlie  agreeable  nature  of  his  recep¬ 
tion  : — 

On  the  morning  of  the  31st;  October,  I  presented  the  letter  to  Cap¬ 
tain  - .  lie  asked  me  the  purport, of  it,  and  bade  me  read  it.  Hav¬ 

ing  read  out  one-third  of  it,  he  said  that  was  enough,  and  that  he  knew 
what  I  was  5  I  was  a  damned  pirate ,  a  damned  rascal ,  and  that  he  would 
put  me  in  irons  and  on  bread  and  water  throughoid  the  rest  of  the  voyage. 
The  first  mate  then  came  up,  and  abused  me  foully  and  blasphe¬ 
mously,  and  pushed  me  down,  bidding  me  get  out  of  that,  as  I  was 

a  damned  b - .  lie  was  found  by  one  of  the  passengers  soon 

afterwards,  heating  a  thick  bar  of  iron  at  the  kitchen  lire  ;  the  cook 
said,  4  What  is  he  doing  that  for  ?  ’  and  the  mate  said,  4  There  is 

a  damned  b - on  board,  to  whom  I  intend  giving  a  singeing  before 

he  leaves  the  ship.’ 

As  a  single  example  of  the  treatment  to  which,  the  help¬ 
less  and  the  feeble  are  exposed  from  brutes  who  luxuriate 
in  violence  and  blasphemy,  this  incident,  the  more  impres¬ 
sive  because  of  the  homely  language  in  which  it  is  told, 
may  be  given  : — 

A  delicate  old  man,  named  John  M-Corcoran,  of  berth  No.  Ill, 
informed  me  that  on  Sunday  last  he  had  just  come  on  deck,  and,  after 
washing,  was  wringing  a  pair  of  stockings,  when  the  first  mate  gave  him 
such  a  severe  kick  with  his  knee  on  his  backside  as  he  was  stooping 
down,  that  he  threw  him  down  upon  the  deck,  since  which  he  has  been 
obliged  to  go  to  the  watercloset  three  or  four  times  a  day,  passing  blood 
every  time. 

These  extracts,  quoted  with  the  purpose  of  illustrating 
the  harsh,  brutal,  and  dishonest  conduct  too  often  practised 
against  emigrants  in  some  ships — mostly  sailing  ships — are 
relied  on  as  accurate,  being  vouched  for  by  the  signature 
of  a  gentleman  whose  name  has  long  been  associated  with 
deeds  of  active  humanity  and  practical  benevolence. 

Within  sight  of  the  wished-for  land,  the  trials  of  the 
emigrant  might  be  said  to  have  begun  rather  than  to  have 
ended  ;  or  rather  the  trials  on  land  succeeded  to  the  trials 
on  sea. 

Previously  to  the  year  1847,  the  alien  emigrant  was 
left  either  to  the  general  quarantine  and  poor-laws,  or  to 


HOW  THINGS  WERE  DONE  TWENTY  YEARS  SINCE.  185 


local  laws  and  ordinances,  varying  in  their  character,  or  in 
their  administration.  A  general  tax  on  all  passengers 
arriving  at  the  port  of  New  York  was  applied  to  the  sup¬ 
port  of  the  Marine  Hospital  at  Quarantine,  where  the  alien 
sick  were  received  and  treated  ;  but  this  was  all  that  the 
humanity  of  that  day  provided  for  the  relief  of  those  whom 
necessity  had  driven  to  the  shores  of  America.  By  the 
local  lawTs,  the  owners  of  vessels  bringing  foreign  emigrants 
were  required  to  enter  into  bonds  indemnifying  the  city 
and  county  in  case  of  their  becoming  chargeable  under 
the  poor-laws.  These  provisions  were  found  to  be  incon¬ 
venient  to  the  shipowner,  owing  to  the  great  increase  of 
emigration  from  the  year  1840  to  the  year  1847,  and  were 
altogether  insufficient  as  a  means  of  protection  to  the 
emigrant  against  the  consequences  of  disease  or  destitu¬ 
tion.  The  bonds  were  onerous  to  the  respectable  ship¬ 
owner,  and  a  rope  of  sand  to  the  fraudulent.  The  ship¬ 
owner,  too,  adopted  a  means  of  evading  his  responsibility 
by  transferring  it  to  the  shipbroker,  a  person  generally  of 
an  inferior  class  ;  and  the  shipbroker  thus  consenting  to 
stand  in  the  place  and  assume  the  responsibility  of  the 
owner,  the  ship  and  her  living  freight  wTere  unreservedly 
surrendered  to  him.  The  shipowner  had  the  alternative 
either  to  give  bonds  of  indemnity  to  the  city  against 
possible  cliargeability,  or  compound  for  a  certain  sum  per 
head,  and  thus  rid  himself  of  all  future  responsibility  ;  but 
he  found  it  more  convenient  to  deal  with  the  broker  than 
with  the  city  authorities.  The  broker  freely  gave  his 
bond ;  but  viien  tested,  it  wTas  in  most  instances  found  to 
be  valueless,  he  generally  being  a  man  of  straw.  To 
the  tender  mercies  of  the  broker  the  emigrant  was  thus 
abandoned. 

Private  hospitals,  or  poor-houses,  were  established  by 
the  brokers  on  the  outskirts  of  New  York  and  Brooklyn ; 
and  from  the  results  of  an  inquiry  instituted  by  the  Board 
of  Aldermen  of  New  York  in  the  year  184G,  an  idea  may 


1SG 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


be  formed  of  the  treatment  received  by  the  wretched 
emigrants  whose  hard  fate  drove  them  into  those  institu¬ 
tions.  The  Committee  discovered  in  one  apartment,  50 
feet  square,  100  sick  and  dying  emigrants  lying  on  straw  ; 
and  among  them,  in  their  midst,  the  bodies  of  two  who 
had  died  four  or  five  davs  before,  but  been  left  for  that 
time  without  burial!  They  found,  in  the  course  of  their 
inquiry,  that  decayed  vegetables,  bad  flour,  and  putrid 
meat,  were  specially  purchased  and  provided  for  the  use  of 
the  strangers !  Such  as  had  strength  to  escape  from  these 
slaughter-houses  fled  from  them,  as  from  a  plague,  and 
roamed  through  the  city,  exciting  the  compassion,  perhaps 
the  horror,  of  the  passers-by;*  those  who  were  too  ill  to 
escape  had  to  take  their  chance — such  chance  as  poisonous 
food,  infected  air,  and  bad  treatment  afforded  them  of 
ultimate  recovery.  Thanks  to  the  magnitude  and  notoriety 
of  the  fearful  abuses  of  the  system  then  shown  to  exist,  a 
remedy,  at  once  comprehensive  and  efficacious,  was  adopted 
— not,  it  is  true,  to  come  into  immediate  operation,  but  to 
prove  in  course  of  time  one  of  the  noblest  monuments  of 
enlightened  wisdom  and  practical  philanthropy.  In  the 
Preface  to  the  published  Reports  of  the  Commissioners  of 
Emigration,  from  the  organisation  of  the  Commission  in 
1817  to  1860,  the  origin  of  the  good  work  is  thus  told  : — 


*  A  prominent  and  much  respected  citizen  of  New  York,  boro  of  Irish  parents, 
eminent  for  ability  and  humanity,  assured  me  he  never  could  forget  the  appearance 
of  a  miserable  old  Irish  woman  who,  as  the  snow  lay  on  the  ground,  and  a  bitter 
wind  swept  through  the  streets,  was  begging  one.  Sunday  morning  in  Broadway. 
Her  hair  was  almost  white,  her  look  that  of  starvation,  and  the  clothing,  if  such 
it  could  be  called,  as  scanty  a3  the  barest  decency  might  permit.  Shivering  and 
hungry,  she  held  out  her  lean  hands  in  mute  petition  to  well-clad  passers-by — 
her  air  and  attitude  as  much  a  prayer  for  compassion  in  God’s  name,  as  if  her 
tongue  had  expressed  it  in  words.  Tins  half  naked,  starving,  shivering  creature 
was  one  of  a  ship-load  of  human  beings  who  had  been  ‘  packed  off  to  America ' 
by  an  absentee  nobleman  enjoying  a  wide  reputation  for  benevolence !  She  wa3 
but  a  type  of  the  thousands  whom  a  similar  lofty  humanity  had  consigned  to  the 
fever-ship  and  the  fever-shed,  or  flung,  naked  and  destitute,  on  the  streets  of 
New  York,  objects  of  pity  or  ol  teiror  to  it3  citizens,  and  of  scandal  to  the  civilised 
fcorld. 


THE  EMIGRATION  COMMISSION  AND  ITS  WORK.  187 


This  state  of  things  was  becoming  more  distressing  as  emigration 
grew  larger,  and  it  even  threatened  danger  to  the  public  health.  A 
number  of  citizens,  to  whose  notice  these  facts  were  specially  and 
frequently  brought — to  some  from  their  connection  with  commerce 
and  navigation,  to  others  from  personal  sympathy  with  the  children 
of  the  land  of  their  own  nativity, — met  about  the  close  of  the  year 
]  84 G,  or  the  winter  of  1847,  and  consulted  on  the  means  of  remedy¬ 
ing  these  evils.  They  proposed  and  agreed  upon  a  plan  of  relief,  which 
was  presented  to  the  Legislature  of  the  State  of  New  York,  and 
was  passed  into  a  law  in  the  session  of  1817.  The  system  then  re¬ 
commended  and  adopted  was  that  of  a  permanent  commission  for  the 
relief  and  protection  of  alien  emigrants  arriving  at  the  port  of  New 
York,  to  whose  aid  such  emigrants  should  be  entitled  for  five  years 
after  their  arrival,  the  expenses  of  their  establishment  and  other 
relief  being  defrayed  by  a  small  commutative  payment  from  each 
emigrant.* 

Figures,  however  gigantic,  afford  but  an  imperfect 
notion  of  the  work,  the  self-imposed  and  disinterested 
work,  of  this  Commission — of  the  good  they  have  ac¬ 
complished,  and,  more  important  still,  the  evil  they  have 
prevented.  When  it  is  stated  that  from  May  1847  to  the 
close  of  186G,  the  number  of  passengers  who  arrived  at 
the  port  of  New  York  was  3,659,000 — about  one-third  of 
whom  received  temporary  relief  from  the  Commissioners — 
we  may  understand  how  wide  and  vast  was  the  field  of 
their  benevolent  labours.  But  in  order  to  appreciate  the 
protection  they  afforded  to  those  who  had  hitherto  been 
unprotected,  and  the  villanies  they  successfully  baffled,  it 
is  necessary  to  describe  some  of  the  dangers  which  dogged 
the  footsteps  of  the  emigrant  after  landing  in  New  York. 

As  voracious  fish  devour  the  smaller  and  helpless  of  the 
finny  tribe,  so  did  a  host  of  human  sharks  and  cormorants 
prey  upon  the  unhappy  emigrant,  whose  innocence  and 
inexperience  left  him  or  her  completely  at  their  mercy ; 
and  scant  was  the  mercy  they  vouchsafed  their  victims. 
These  bandits — for  such  they  literally  were,  notwithstand¬ 
ing  that  they  did  not  exactly  strike  down  their  victims  with 
pistol  or  with  po'gnard — assumed  many  forms,  such  as 

*  Now  two  dollars  and  a-half. 


188 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


brokers,  runners,  boarding-house  keepers,  commission 
agents,  sellers  of  ‘  bogus  ’  tickets,  and  others ;  and  from 
their  number  and  audacity  they  appeared  to  set  all  law  and 
authority  at  defiance.  To  such  an  extent  had  their  daring 
depredations  been  carried,  that  the  Legislature,  in  1846, 
appointed  a  Select  Committee  to  investigate  their  practices. 
But,  in  their  first  annual  report,  the  Commissioners  are 
compelled  to  acknowledge  how  little  was  the  practical  good 
resulting  from  the  inquiry  and  its  consequent  disclosures ; 
for  they  say — ‘  It  is  a  matter  of  almost  daily  observation 
by  persons  in  the  employ  of  the  Commissioners,  that  the 
frauds  exposed  in  the  Beport  of  the  Select  Committee, 
appointed  last  year  to  examine  frauds  upon  emigrants, 
continued  to  be  practised  with  as  much  boldness  and 
frequency  as  ever.  A  regular  and  systematic  course  of 
deception  and  fraud  is  continually  in  operation,  whereby 
the  emigrant  is  deprived  of  a  large  portion  of  the  means 
intended  to  aid  him  in  procuring  a  home  in  the  country  of 
his  adoption.’ 

To  do  the  Legislature  justice,  it  freely  passed  laws  to 
guard  the  poor  alien  from  ‘  those  enemies  of  the  emigrant  ’ 
— agents,  runners,  forwarders,  and  brokers,  and  also  in¬ 
vested  the  Commissioners  with  considerable  powers ;  but 
the  best  intentions  of  the  Legislature,  and  the  most 
earnest  exertions  of  the  Commissioners,  were  baffled  by 
unexpected  obstacles ;  and  it  was  not  until  after  having 
encountered  difficulties  and  borne  "with  disappointments 
which  would  have  daunted  benevolence  less  courageous 
than  theirs,  that,  in  the  year  1855,  the  Commissioners 
succeeded  in  securing  the  grand  object  of  their  persistent 
efforts  ;  namely,  the  possession  of  an  official  landing-place  for 
all  the  emigrants  arriving  at  the  port  of  New  York.  They 
were  from  the  first  fully  alive  to  the  importance  of  obtain¬ 
ing  this  landing  place ;  and  in  their  second  Report  they 
express  their  regret  that,  being  unable  to  obtain  the  use 
of  a  pier  for  this  purpose,  and  consequently  being  unable 


LAND  SHARKS  AND  THEIR  PREY. 


189 


to  reach  the  emigrant  before  he  falls  amongst  those  who 
stand  ready  to  deceive  him,  frauds,  which  formerly  excited 
so  much  indignation  and  sympathy,  are  continued  with  as 
much  boldness  and  frequency  as  ever. 

The  law  also  attempted  to  regulate  the  charges  in  board¬ 
ing-houses,  and  protect  the  luggage  of  the  emigrant  from 
the  clutches  of  the  proprietors  of  these  establishments  ; 
but  it  appeared  only  to  render  the  lot  of  the  emigrant  one 
of  still  greater  hardship  ;  for  what  could  no  longer  be  le¬ 
gally  retained  was  illegally  made  away  with.  In  their  Re¬ 
port  for  1848,  the  Commissioners  refer  to  the  new  system 
adopted  in  these  houses  : — ‘  Of  late,  robberies  of  luggage 
from  emigrant  boarding-houses  have  become  of  frequent 
occurrence,  so  as  to  have  excited  the  suspicion  that  in  some 
instances  the  keepers  of  the  houses  are  not  altogether  free 
from  participation  in  the  robbery.  If  the  tavern  keeper 
has  reason  to  apprehend  that  the  lodger  will  not  be  able 
to  pay  his  bill,  and  knowing  that  the  law  prohibits  his  re¬ 
taining  the  luggage,  he  may  think  it  proper  to  secure  his 
claim  without  law.’ 

I  must  confess  to  being  immensely  amused  at  hearing 
from  one  who  had  passed  through  the  ordeal,  how  he  had 
been  dealt  with  in  the.  fine  old  time  of  unrestricted  plunder, 
when  the  emigrant  was  left  to  his  fate — that  fate  assuming 
the  substantial  form  of  the  runner  and  the  boarding-house 
keeper.  My  informant  was  a  great,  broad-shouldered, 
red-haired  Irishman,  over  six  feet  ‘in  his  stocking-vamps/ 
and  who,  I  may  add,  on  the  best  authority,  bore  himself 
gallantly  in  the  late  war,  under  the  banner  of  the  Union. 
He  was  but  a  very  young  lad  when,  in  1848,  he  came  to 
New  York,  with  a  companion  of  his  own  age,  cto  better 
his  fortune,’  as  many  a  good  Irishman  had  endeavoured  to 
do  before  him.  He  possessed,  besides  splendid  health 
and  a  capacity  for  hard  work,  a  box  of  tools,  a  bundle  of 
clothes,  and  a  few  pounds  in  gold — not  a  bad  outfit  for  a 
gc od-teinpered  young  Irishman,  with  a  red  head,  broad 


190 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


shoulders,  grand  appetite,  and  fast  rising  to  the  six  feet. 
The  moment  he  landed,  his  luggage  was  pounced  upon  by 
two  runners,  one  seizing  the  box  of  tools,  the  other  con¬ 
fiscating  the  clothes.  The  future  American  citizen  assured 
his  obliging  friends  that  he  was  quite  capable  of  carrying 
his  own  luggage  ;  but  no,  they  should  relieve  him — the 
stranger,  and  guest  of  the  Republic — of  that  trouble.  Each 
was  in  the  interest  of  a  different  boarding-house,  and  each 
insisted  that  the  young  Irishman  with  the  red  head  should 
go  with  him — a  proposition  that,  to  any  but  a  New  York 
runner,  would  seem,  if  not  altogether  impossible,  at  least 
most  difficult  of  accomplishment.  Not  being  able  to 
oblige  both  the  gentlemen,  he  could  only  oblige  one  ;  and 
as  the  tools  were  more  valuable  than  the  clothes,  he  fol¬ 
lowed  in  the  path  of  the  gentleman  who  had  secured  that 
portion  of  the  ‘plunder.’  He  remembers  that  the  two 
gentlemen  wore  very  pronounced  green  neck-ties,  and 
spoke  with  a  richness  of  accent  that  denoted  special  if 
not  conscientious  cultivation  ;  and  on  his  arrival  at  the 
boarding-house,  he  was  cheered  with  the  announcement 
that  its  proprietor  was  from  ‘the  ould  counthry,  and  loved 
every  sod  of  it,  God  bless  it !  ’  In  a  manner  truly  paternal, 
the  host  warned  the  two  lads  against  the  dangers  of  the 
streets ;  and  so  darkly  did  he  paint  the  horrors,  and 
villanies,  and  murders  of  all  kinds,  that  were  sure  to  rain 
down  upon  their  innocent  heads,  that  the  poor  boys  were 
frightened  into  a  rigid  seclusion  from  the  world  outside, 
and  occupied  their  time  as  best  they  could,  not  forgetting 
‘the  eating  and  the  drinking’  which  the  house  afforded. 
The  young  Irishman  with  the  red  head  imparted  to  the 
host  the  fact  of  his  having  a  friend  in  Canal  Street — 
‘  wherever  Canal  Street  was  ’ ;  and  that  the  friend  had  been 
some  six  years  in  New  York,  and  knew  the  place  well,  and 
was  to  procure  employment  for  him  as  soon  as  they  met ; 
and  he  concluded  by  asking  how  he  could  get  to  Canal 
Street.  ‘  Canal  Street ! — is  it  Canal  Street  ? — whj^  then 


FINDING  CANAL  STREET. 


191 


what  a  mortal  pity,  and  the  stage  to  go  just  an  nour  before 
you  entered  this  very  door  !  My,  my !  that’s  unfortunate  ; 
isn’t  it  ?  Well,  no  matter,  there’ll  be  another  in  two  days’ 
time,  or  three  at  farthest,  and  I’ll  be  sure  to  see  you  sent 
there  all  right — depend  your  life  on  me  when  I  say  it,’ 
said  the  jovial  kindly  host.  For  full  forty-eight  hours  the 
two  lads,  who  were  as  innocent  as  a  brace  of  young  goslings, 
endured  the  irksome  monotony  of  the  boarding-house,  even 
though  that  abode  of  hospitality  was  cheered  by  the 
presence  of  its  jovial  host,  who  loved  every  sod  of  the 
‘  ould  counthry ;  ’  but  human  nature  cannot  endure  beyond 
a  certain  limit — and  the  two  lads  resolved,  in  sheer 
desperation,  to  break  bounds  at  any  hazard.  They  roamed 
through  the  streets  for  some  time,  without  any  special  ill 
befalling  them.  Meeting  a  policeman,  the  young  fellow 
with  the  red  head  suggested  to  his  companion  the  possi¬ 
bility  of  the  official  knowing  something  about  Canal 
Street ;  and  as  his  companion  had  nothing  to  urge  against 
it,  they  approached  that  functionary,  and  boldly  pro¬ 
pounded  the  question  to  him — where  Canal  Street  was, 
and  how  it  could  be  reached?  ‘Why,  then,  my  man,’ 
replied  the  policeman,  who  also  happened  to  be  a  com¬ 
patriot,  ‘if  you  only  follow  your  nose  for  the  space  of 
twenty  minutes  in  that  direction,  you’ll  come  to  Canal 
Street,  and  no  mistake  about  it;  you’ll  see  the  name 
on  the  corner,  in  big  letters,  if  you  can  read — as  I  suppose 
you  can,  for  you  look  to  be  two  decent  boys.’  Canal  Street 
in  twenty  minutes !  Here  indeed  was  a  pleasant  surprise 
for  the  young  fellows,  who  had  been  told  to  wait  for 
the  stage,  which,  according  to  the  veracious  host,  ‘  was 
due  in  about  another  day.’  Of  course  they  did  ollow 
their  respective  noses  until  they  actually  reached  Canal 
Street,  found  the  number  of  the  house  in  wffiicli  their 
friend  resided,  and  discovered  the  friend  himself,  to  whom 
they  recounted  their  brief  adventures  in  New  York. 
Thanks  to  the  smartness  of  their  acclimated  friend,  they 


192 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


recovered  tlieir  effects,  but  not  before  they  disbursed  to 
the  jovial  host,  who  ‘loved  every  sod  of  the  ould  counthry, 
God  bless  it !  ’  more  than  would  have  enabled  them  to  fare 
sumptuously  at  the  Astor.  And  as  the  great  strapping- 
fellow — who  had  since  seen  many  a  brave  man  die  with 
his  face  to  the  foe — told  the  tale  of  his  first  introduction 
to  the  Empire  City,  he  actually  looked  sheepish  at  its 
recollection,  and  then  laughed  heartily  at  a  simplicity 
which  had  long  since  become,  with  him,  a  weakness  of 
the  past. 

As  a  companion  picture  to  the  foregoing,  the  story  of  a 
Scotch  victim,  who  was  driven  crazy  by  the  vigorous  appli¬ 
cation  of  the  fleecing  process,  will  exhibit  the  manner  in 
which  things  were  done  before  the  Castle  Garden  era. 
This  was  part  of  the  evidence  taken  in  1847  : — 

Testimony  of  the  St.  Andrew’s  Society.  We,  the  undersigned, 
officers  of  St.  Andrew's  Society,  in  the  city  of  Albany,  do  hereby  certify 
that  on  or  about  the  2nd  day  of  August  last  it  was  represented  to  us 
by  a  manager  of  our  society  that  a  Scotch  emigrant,  by  the  name  of 
James  Heeslop,  had  been  grossly  defrauded  and  swindled  out  of  his 
money  by  the  runners,  or  the  robbing  concerns  for  whom  these  run¬ 
ners  do  business.  We  immediately  wrent  on  the  dock,  and  made 
inquiries  after  Heeslop,  when  we  were  informed  that  he  had  been 
despatched  on  a  boat  to  his  destination ;  we  had  him  followed  to 
Troy,  and  brought  back.  The  story  he  told  the  police  justice,  Cole,  in 
our  presence,  in  asking  for  a  warrant  against  the  notorious  Smethurst, 
was  in  substance  as  follows: — That  he  arrived  in  New  York  from 
Scotland  a  few  days  previous  ;  that  his  destination  was  Port  Wash¬ 
ington,  in  the  State  of  Ohio :  that  he  was  accosted  by  a  person  in 
New  York  near  the  Albany  steamboat,  -who  represented  himself  as  a 
forwarding  agent,  and  with  whom  he  (Heeslop)  agreed  for  the  pas¬ 
sage  of  himself  and  family  (three  persons),  from  there  to  his  destina¬ 
tion,  and  paid  the  said  agent,  therefore,  four  British  sovereigns,  the 
agent  consigning  Heeslop  to  the  care  of  Smethurst  and  Co.  He  gave 
Heeslop  tickets  which  the  agent  told  him  would  carry  him  through. 
That  a  short  time  after  the  boat  started,  Heeslop  was  accosted  by  a 
second  person,  who  likewise  represented  himself  as  forwarding  agent, 
and  having  learned  the  destination  and  particulars  of  ITeeslop’s  affairs, 
asked  to  look  at  his  tickets  ;  that  Heeslop  showed  him  the  tickets, 
and  the  agent  told  Heeslop  that  the  other  agent  had  mistaken f 


SHARKS  AND  CORMORANTS. 


193 


that  these  tickets  were  only  good  as  far  as  Buffalo  and  that  in  order  to 
make  sure  his  passage,  it  would  be  necessary  for  him  (the  said  Heeslop; 
to  pay  him  (the  said  second  agent)  a  further  payment  of  three  sovereigns, 
which  Heeslop  had  to  pay  when  he  arrived  at  Albany,  They  told 
Heeslop  at  the  office  of  Smetlmrst  and  Co.,  that  he  should  pay  in  ad¬ 
dition  the  sum  of  eight  sovereigns ,  together  with  fifteen  sovereigns  mure 
for  his  luggage ;  that  the  said  Heeslop  being  rendered  almost  crazy 
by  these  repeated  plunderings,  and,  wishing  at  all  hazards  to  proceed 
to  his  destination  and  true  friends,  he  paid  down  the  further  demand 
of  twenty-three  sovereigns ,  and  was  then  put  on  board  a  canal  boat, 
where  the  undersigned  found  him  and  brought  him  back  as  aforesaid. 
That  the  police  justice,  on  hearing  the  poor  plundered  man’s  tale, 
immediately  issued  a  warrant  for  the  arrest  of  Smetlmrst,  but  he  was 
nowhere  to  be  found ;  and  when  Smetlmrst  made  his  appearance 
again,  the  Scotch  emigrant  was  missing — the  instruments  and  associates 
of  Smetlmrst  having  in  the  meantime  cajoled  or  sent  him  from  the 
city. 

‘Thus  it  will  be  perceived,  that  thirty  sovereigns,  or  one  hundred  and 
forty-jive  dollars,  were  extorted  from  this  poor  man  for  fare,  and  to  a 
place,  the  ordinary  price  to  which  from  JVew  York  is  two  dollars  and 
eighty-seven  cents  a  passenger,  or  eight  dollars  and  sixty-one  cents  for 
Heeslop  and  his  family,  thus  leaving  those  rapacious  forwarders  the 
swindling  profit  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-six  dollars  in  tlds  single 
case.  All  of  which  is  respectfully  submitted.’ 

So  long  as  the  Commissioners  were  unable  to  obtain  the 
compulsory  landing-place  for  all  emigrants  arriving  at 
New  York,  the  runners,  and  brokers,  and  ticket-sellers, 
and  money-changers,  had  everything  their  own  way ;  and 
terrible  were  the  consequences  of  their  practical  immu¬ 
nity.  Swarming  about  the  wharves,  which  they  literally 
infested,  all, — the  emigrant  passenger,  his  luggage,  his 
money,  his  very  future,—  was  at  their  mercy.  The  stranger 
knew  nothing  of  the  value  of  exchange,  nor  how  many 
dollars  he  should  receive  for  his  gold ;  but  his  new-found 
friend  did,  and  gave  him  just  as  much  as  he  could  not 
venture  to  withhold  from  him.  Then  there  were  the  tickets 
for  the  inland  journey  to  be  purchased,  and  the  new-found 
friend  with  the  green  necktie  and  the  genuine  brogue 
could  procure  these  for  him  on  terms  the  most  advan¬ 
tageous  :  indeed,  it  was  fortunate  for  the  emigrant  that  ho 

9 


194 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


fell  into  the  hands  of  ‘an  honest  man  at  any  rate  ‘ for, 
Lord  bless  us !  there  are  so  many  rogues  to  be  met  with 

O 

now-a-days.’ 

An  instance  of  ready  reckoning,  most  favourable  to  the 
ingenious  arithmetician,  is  recorded  in  the  evidence  taken 
in  184.7.  Pat  had  but  a  poor  chance  against  such  a  master 
of  finance.  The  writer  says,  CI  was  in  a  boarding-house 
in  Cherry  Street ;  a  man  came  up  to  pay  his  bill,  which 
the  landlord  made  out  18  dollars.  “  Why,”  says  the  man, 
“  did  not  you  agree  to  board  me  for  sixpence  a  meal,  and 
threepence  for  a  bed  ?  ”  “  Yes,”  says  the  landlord,  “  and 

that  makes  just  75  cents  per  day ;  you  have  been  here 
eight  days,  and  that  makes  just  18  dollars.”  At  three- 
quarters  of  a  dollar  per  day,  the  bill  should  have  been  six 
dollars  ;  so  the  ready  reckoner  made  twelve  dollars  by  nis 
genius  for  multiplication. 

Among  the  most  fruitful  means  of  fraud  was  the  sale  of 
tickets.  These  tickets  were  of  various  kinds — tickets  sold 
at  exorbitant  prices,  but  good  for  the  journey ;  tickets 
which  carried  the  passenger  only  a  portion  of  his  journey, 
though  sold  for  the  entire  route ;  and  tickets  utterly 
worthless,  issued  by  companies  that  had  long  before  been 
bankrupt,  or  by  companies  that  existed  only  in  imagina¬ 
tion.  These  latter  are  called  ‘  bogus  *  tickets ;  and  these 
were  sold  in  Europe  as  well  as  in  America — in  village  and 
country  town,  as  in  city  and  in  seaport ;  and  not  rarely 
were  they  palmed  off  on  the  confiding  passenger,  as  ‘a 
great  bargain,’  by  a  sympathising,  good-natured  fellow- 
passenger,  who,  by  the  merest  luck,  had  bought  them 
cheap  from  a  family  he  knew  at  home,  that  had  £  changed 
their  minds,  and  wouldn’t  cross  over,  being  afeard  of 
the  say.’ 

In  1848  the  Commissioners  of  Emigration  issued  a 
circular,  in  which  these  passages  occur  : — - 

‘  As  may  be  supposed,  there  are  many  people  engaged  in  the  busi¬ 
ness  of  forwarding  these  emigrants,  and  the  individuals  or  companies 


BOGUS  TICKETS. 


193 


thus  engaged  employ  a  host  of  clerks  or  servants,  called  “runners,-’  who 
try  to  meet  the  new-comer  on  board  the  ship  that  brings  him,  or  imme¬ 
diately  after  he  puts  his  foot  on  shore,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  him  to 
the  forwarding  offices  for  which  they  respectively  act.  The  tricks  re¬ 
sorted  to,  in  order  to  forestall  a  competitor  and  secure  the  emigrant, 
would  be  amusing,  if  they  were  not  at  the  cost  of  the  inexperienced  and 
unexpecting  stranger  ;  and  it  is  but  too  true  that  an  enormous  sum  of 
money  is  annually  lost  to  the  emigrants  by  the  wiles  and  false  statements 
of  the  emigrant  runners,  many  of  them  originally  from  their  own  country, 
and  speaking  their  native  language. 

‘  Of  late  the  field  of  operations  of  these  “  emigrant  runners  ”  is  no 

longer  confined  to  this  city  ;  it  extends  to  Europe . They 

generally  call  themselves  agents  of  some  transportation,  or  forwarding 
bureau,  and  endeavour  to  impress  the  emigrant  who  intends  going  far¬ 
ther  than  New  York  with  the  belief  that  it  is  for  his  benefit,  and  in  the 
highest  degree  desirable,  to  secure  his  passage  hence  to  the  place  of  his 

destination,  before  he  leaves  Europe . He  is  told  that, 

unless  he  does  so,  he  runs  great  risk  of  being  detained,  or  having  to  pay 
exorbitant  prices . , . .  .  . 

*  Instances  have  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Commissioners,  where 
the  difference  amounted  to  three  dollars  a  person.  But  this  is  not  all. 
The  cases  are  by  no  means  rare,  in  which  the  tickets  prove  entirely  worth¬ 
less.  They  bear  the  name  of  offices  which  never  existed,  and  then,  of 
course,  are  nowhere  respected  ;  or,  the  offices  whose  names  they  bear 
will  be  found  shut  up,  and  are  not  likely  ever  to  re-open  :  or  the  emi¬ 
grants  are  directed  to  parties  refusing  to  acknowledge  the  agent  who 
issued  the  tickets,  and  in  all  these  cases  the  emigrant  loses  the  money 
paid  for  them.’ 

A  profitable  fraud  is  not  to  be  suppressed  without  much 
difficulty  ;  and  even  in  1857 — nine  years  after — we  find  the 
iniquity  of  the  bogus  ticket  in  active  operation.  In  a  letter 
addressed  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  the  Commissioners 
assert  that  the  chief  operators  in  this  system  of  fraud 
have  not  only  opened  offices  in  the  several  seaports  where 
emigrants  usually  embark,  but  have  also  established  agen 
cies  in  towns  in  the  interior  of  those  countries,  and  in  the 
very  villages  whence  families  are  likely  to  emigrate. 
Excluding  Hamburg  and  Bremen  from  their  observations, 
the  Commissioners  add  that  £  very  many  of  those  from 
other  ports  are  first  defrauded  of  their  means  by  being 


190 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


induced  to  purchase  tickets  for  railroad  and  water  travel  in 
this  country,  at  high  prices,  which,  when  presented  here, 
are  found  to  be  either  quite  worthless,  or  to  carry  the 
holders  to  some  point  in  the  interior  far  short  of  their 
destination,  wdiere  they  are  left  destitute.’  Mr.  Marcy,  in 
reply,  states  that  he  has  addressed  a  circular  letter  to  the 
diplomatic  and  consular  agents  of  the  United  States  in 
those  countries  of  Europe  from  which  emigrants  chiefly 
proceed,  and  instructed  them  to  bring  the  subject  to  the 
notice  of  the  Governments  to  which  they  were  accredited, 
or  of  the  authorities  of  the  place  where  they  reside,  and 
to  ask  for  the  adoption  of  such  measures  £  as  may  be  re¬ 
quired  by  the  claims  of  humanity  and  the  comity  of 
nations.’ 

What  a  gauntlet  the  helpless  emigrant  had  to  run  before 
he  was  fairly  on  the  road  to  his  land  of  promise  !  Many 
were  strong  enough  to  break  through,  or  fortunate  enough 
to  slip  through,  this  net-work  of  fraud  ;  but  it  may  well  be 
doubted  if,  for  some  years  at  least,  those  so  strong  or  so 
fortunate  were  the  greater  number,  It  is  lamentably  true, 
that  many,  many  thousands  had  their  wings  so  effectually 
clipped — nay,  so  utterly  plucked  were  they  by  the  patriotic 
gentlemen  with  the  green  neckties,  or  the  ladies  with  the 
green  ribands,  that  they  could  not  get  beyond  New  York, 
into  which,  though  perhaps  altogether  unsuited  to  the  life 
of  a  city,  the  miserable  victims  of  heartless  fraud  and  piti¬ 
less  robbery  sank  down  to  a  lot  of  hardship,  it  might  be  of 
degradation  and  of  ruin.  It  is  heart-rending  to  think  of 
the  tremendous  consequences  of  these  systematic  villanies, 
and  to  reflect  how  thousands  of  people  were  thus  fatall}r 
arrested  on  their  way  to  places  specially  suited  to  their 
industry,  and  where,  most  probably,  after  the  usual  proba¬ 
tionary  hard  work,  they  would  have  established  themselves 
in  comfort  and  independence.  Better  for  many  of  them, 
old  and  young,  the  high-spirited  boy  and  the  innocent  girl, 
that  they  had  become  the  prey  of  the  sharks  of  the  deep, 


HOW  TI1E  ‘OUTLAWS'  RESiSTED  REFORM. 


197 


than  that  they  had  fallen  into  the  clutches  ol  the  sharks  of 
(he  land.* 

At  length,  in  1855,  the  Commissioners  succeeded  in 
establishing  Castle  Garden  as  the  landing-place  for  all 
emigrants  arriving  at  New  York  ;  and  among  other  benefits 
which,  in  their  report  of  that  year,  they  enumerate  as 
resulting  from  the  possession  of  this  grand  convenience, 
they  include  c  the  dispersion  of  a  band  of  outlaws,  at¬ 
tracted  to  this  port  by  plunder,  from  all  parts  of  the 
earth .’  The  ‘outlaws’  were  perhaps  not  so  effectually 
dispersed  as  the  Commissioners  fondly  imagined  them  to 
be ;  for  so  persistent  were  the  attacks  upon  the  system 
established  at  Castle  Garden — attacks  made  generally 
through  the  public  press — that  the  Grand  Jury  of  the 
County  of  New  York  was  formally  appealed  to.  Nominally 
investigating  certain  charges  made  against  the  employees 
of  the  railway  companies  doing  business  in  Castle  Garden, 
the  Grand  Inquest  really  enquired  into  the  entire  system ; 
and  the  result  of  that  timely  investigation  was  of  the  ut¬ 
most  consequence,  in  strengthening  the  hands  of  the  Com¬ 
missioners,  and  confounding  their  interested  maligners. 

‘  On  inquiry,’  they  said,  ‘  into  the  causes  of  certain  published  attacks 
on  the  Emigrant  Landing  Depot,  the  Grand  Inquest  have  become 
satisfied  that  they  emanate,  in  the  first  instance,  from  the  very  in¬ 
terested  parties  against  whose  depredations  Castle  Garden  affords  pro¬ 
tection  to  the  emigrant,  and  who  are  chiefly  runners  in  the  employ 
of  booking-agents,  boarding-house  keepers,  and  others,  who  have  lost 
custom  by  the  establishment  of  a  central  dep6t,  where  the  railway 

*  The  following,  from  the  statement  of  Mr.  Vere  Foster,  to  which  reference  has 
already  been  made,  represents  the  state  of  things  existing  in  1850,  and  while 
exhibiting  the  terrible  injury  inflicted  on  the  inexperienced  and  defenceless 
emigrant,  affords  a  conclusive  testimony  in  favour  of  an  official  landing-place, 
where  passengers  arriving  at  New  York  could  be  protected  from  those  who  regarded 
them  as  their  lawful  prey : — 

‘  3rd  December.— A  few  of  the  passengers  were  taken  ashore  to  the  hospital  at 
‘  Staten  Island,  and  we  arrived  alongside  the  quay  at  New  York  this  afternoon. 
‘  The  900  passengers  dispersed  as  usual  among  the.  various  fleecing  houses,  to  he 
‘ partially  or  entirely  disabled  for  pursuing  their  travels  into  the  interior  in  search  of 
*  employment.’ 


v  -  -V  ■ 

19S  THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 

companies  have  their  own  business  done  by  their  own  clerks,  without 
the  intervention  of  passage-brokers,  &c. 

‘  This  class  has  thrown  great  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  proper 
development  of  affairs  in  Castle  Garden,  by  constituting  a  noisy  crowd 
outside  the  gates,  whose  behaviour  is  utterly  lawless,  and  endangers 
the  personal  safety,  not  only  of  the  passengers  who  have  to  leave  the 
Castle  Garden  to  transact  business  in  the  city,  but  also  the  employees 
of  the  Landing  Dep6t,  and  of  individual  Commissioners  of  Emigra¬ 
tion,  who  are  continually  insulted  in  the  public  grounds  surrounding 
the  depftt,  and  have  been  obliged  to  carry  loaded  fire-arms  in  self- 
defence  against  the  violence  which  has  frequently  been  offered  to 
them.’ 

The  Grand  Inquest,  after  administering  some  hard  hits 
to  the  local  authorities,  for  the  culpable  remissness  of  the 
police  in  preventing  the  disorders  which  they  describe,  thus 
conclude  : 

‘  Having  become  satisfied  that  the  Emigrant  Landing  Dep6t,  in  all 
its  operations,  is  a  blessing,  not  only  to  emigrants,  but  to  the  commu¬ 
nity  at  large,  they  would  feel  remiss  in  the  performance  of  a  sacred 
duty  if  they  failed  to  recommend  this  important  philanthropic  estab¬ 
lishment  to  the  fostering  care  of  the  municipal  authorities  ;  and  they 
had  dismissed  the  complaints  preferred  against  certain  employers  of 
the  Castle  Garden,  satisfied  that  they  are  not  sustained  by  law,  and 
have  their  origin  in  a  design  to  disturb,  rather  than  to  further,  the 
good  work  for  which  the  establishment  has  been  called  into  life  by  an 
Act  of  Legislature  of  April  1855. ? 

Tliis  triumphant  vindication  of  an  institution  which  is 
to  none  more  important  than  to  the  Irish  who  seek  a  home 
in  America,  bears  the  signature — ‘Howell  Hoppock,  Fore¬ 
man  of  Grand  Jury.’ 

With  a  full  knowledge  of  the  evils  with  which  the 
Commissioners  of  Emigration  had  to  contend,  we  shall  be 
better  able  to  appreciate  the  leading  features  of  the  system 
pursued  at  Castle  Garden,  and  how  far  it  realises  the  in¬ 
tentions  of  its  benevolent  founders. 

The  emigrant  ship*  drops  her  anchor  in  the  North  River, 

*  It  will  be  seen  from  the  following  passage  from  the  report  of  1866 — published 
in  1867 — that  steamers  are  fast  driving  emigrant  sailing  ships  from  the  sea.  Con¬ 
sidering  the  shortness  of  the  voyage,  and  the  generally  excellent  nature  of  the 


THE  NEW  SYSTEM. 


199 


or  upper  part  of  tlie  Bay,  where  she  is  compelled  to  await 
the  arrival  of  the  steamer  and  barge  belonging  to  the 
Commissioners,  by  which  passengers  and  their  baggage  are 
landed  at  the  wharf  of  Castle  Garden  ;  which  to  the  alien 
is  the  Gate  of  the  New  World — the  portal  through  which 
he  reaches  the  free  soil  of  America.  Passengers  and  their 
baggage  are  under  the  protection  of  the  Commissioners 
from  the  moment  they  are  thus  transferred  to  their  charge  ; 
and  though  the  brood  of  cheats  and  harpies  may  grind  their 
teeth  with  rage  as  they  remember  the  time  when  they  were 
the  first  to  board  the  emigrant  ship,  and,  as  a  matter  of 
undisputed  right,  take  possession  of  her  freight,  living  and 
inanimate,  they  know  that  their  anger  is  unavailing,  for 
that  their  day  of  licence  has  passed.  No  sooner  is  tlm 
ship’s  arrival  notified  at  Castle  Garden,  than  the  officer  on 
duty  obtains  at  the  proper  office  a  list  of  the  passengers 
for  whom  letters,  or  remittances,  or  instructions,  have  been 
received  by  the  Commissioners  from  friends  who  expected 
their  arrival  by  that  vessel.  The  officer  boards  the  ship  in 
his  steamer  ;  and  the  first  thing  he  does  on  reaching  her 
deck  is  to  read  aloud  to  the  expectant  hundreds,  by  whom 
he  is  quickly  surrounded,  the  names  of  the  passengers  on 
his  list,  and  announce  that  letters,  or  news,  or  money, 
await  them  at  Castle  Garden.  Cheering  to  the  heart  of 
the  anxious  or  desponding  emigrant — probably  a  wife  who 
has  come  out  to  her  husband,  or  a  child  in  search  of  a 
parent — is  this  joyful  proclamation,  it  sounds  so  full  of 
welcome  to  the  new  home.*  Too  many,  perhaps,  feel  their 

accommodation  in  well  appointed  steamers,  such  as  are  at  present  employed  in 
the  passenger  trade,  this  is  a  revolution  not  to  be  regretted  : — 

‘By  comparison  with  former  years  it  is  shown  that  the  number  of  steamers 
‘landing  passengers  at  Castle  Garden  has  increased  irom  *L,  bringing  5,111  pas¬ 
sengers,  in  1856,  to  109,  bringing  34,247  passengers,  in  1860  ;  to  95,  bringing 
‘21,110  passengers,  in  1861  ;  to  100,  bringing  25,843  passengers,  in  1862  ;  to  170, 
‘bringing  63,931  passengers,  in  1863;  to  203,  bringing  81.794  passengers,  in  1864; 
‘  to  220,  bringing  116,579  passengers,  in  1865  ;  and  to  341  steamers,  bringing 
‘  160,653  passengers,  in  1866.’ 

*  A  considerable  sum,  amounting  to  107,000  dollars,  was  received  in  1866, 
through  various  channels,  in  anticipation  of  the  arrival  of  intending  emigrants, 


200 


TI1E  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


isolation  or  their  disappointment  the  more  poignantly  from 
there  being  no  word  of  love,  no  sign  of  welcome  to  hail 
their  arrival. 

The  passengers  are  transferred  to  the  steamer,  and  their 
baggage  to  the  barge,  and  landed  at  Castle  Garden,  where 
their  names  and  destinations  are  entered  in  a  book  kept 
for  that  purpose.  In  the  large  building  at  the  disposal  of 
the  Commissioners  the  emigrants  may  obtain  the  luxury 
of  a  thorough  ablution,  and  the  comfort  of  the  first  meal  on 
solid  land  ;  and  those  who  have  brought  out  money  with 
them,  or  for  whom  their  friends  have  sent  remittances  in 
anticipation  of  their  arrival,  and  who  desire  to  push  on — 
North,  South,  or  West — may  at  once  start  on  their  journey. 
They  can  change  their  money  for  the  currency  of  the 
country,  and  purchase  railway  tickets  to  any  part  of  the 
United  States  or  Canada,  and  do  so  without  going  outside 
the  building,  or  risking  the  loss  of  its  salutary  protection. 
They  and  their  baggage  are  conveyed  to  the  railway  depot, 
from  which  they  start  on  their  inland  journey,  fortunate 
indeed  in  not  having  a  single  feather  plucked  from  their 
wing  by  watchful  harpy. 

Of  many  important  and  valuable  departments  of  this 
Landing  Depot,  those  for  the  exchange  of  money  and  the 
sale  of  railway  or  steamboat  tickets  are  not  the  least  impor¬ 
tant  or  valuable.  In  the  exchange  department  various  na¬ 
tionalities  are  represented  ;  and  for  a  small  percentage, 
sufficient  to  remunerate  the  broker  without  oppressing  the 
emigrant,  English  and  Irish,  Germans,  French,  Swedes, 
Danes,  and  others,  may  procure  reliable  money — not  flash 
notes — for  their  gold  and  silver  and  paper  currency.  The 
exchange  brokers  admitted  to  do  business  in  Castle  Garden 
are  men  of  respectability  ;  but  were  they  inclined  to  take 


and  applied  to  their  forwarding.  The  amount  received  at  the  Landing  Tep't 
was  57,359  dollars  ;  at  the  office  of  the  Irish  Fmigrant  Society,  21,226  dollars  ; 
ut  the  office  of  the  German  Society,  25,G13£. ;  besides  other  sums,  amounting  tc 
about  4,000  dollars. 


THE  DAYS  OF  BOGUS  TICKETS  GONE. 


201 


advantage  of  tlie  simplicity  of  the  emigrant,  their  prompt 
expulsion  would  be  the  certain  result.  Here  then,  in  a 
most  essential  matter,  is  complete  protection  afforded  to 
the  inexperienced  and  the  helpless. 

The  sale  of  railway  tickets,  the  fruitful  source  of  rob¬ 
bery  and  actual  ruin  in  former  days,  is  entrusted  to  re¬ 
sponsible  railway  agents,  over  whom  the  Commissioners, 
as  in  duty  bound,  maintain  a  watchful  control,  necessary 
rather  to  prevent  delay  and  inconvenience  to  the  emigrant 
than  to  protect  him  againsjj  positive  fraud.  It  is  the  in¬ 
terest  of  the  railway  companies  represented  in  this  bureau 
to  fulfil  their  engagements  with  honesty  and  liberality  ;  as 
if  they  fail  to  do  so,  the  Commissioners  have  sufficient 
power  to  bring  them  to  their  senses.*  Of  bogus  tickets 
there  need  be  no  apprehension  now,  as  in  former  times, 
when  they  were  sold  at  home  in  the  seaport  town,  and  even 
in  the  country  village  ;  on  board-ship  during  the  voyage, 
or  on  the  wharves  and  in  the  streets  of  New  York.  The 
mere  loss  of  the  purchase-money  did  not  by  any  means 
represent  the  infamy  of  the  fraud  or  the  magnitude  of  the 
evil.  Not  only  was  the  individual  or  the  family  effectually 
plundered,  but,  being  deprived  of  the  means  of  transport, 
they  could  not  get  beyond  the  precincts  of  the  city  in  which 
they  first  set  foot,  and  thus  all  hopes  of  a  future  of  profit¬ 
able  industry  were  lost  to  them  for  ever.  The  sale  of  rail¬ 
road  tickets  in  Castle  Garden  is  therefore  a  protection  of 
the  very  first  importance  to  the  emigrant. 


*  The  Commissioners,  in  a  memorial  addressed  to  the  Senate  of  tlie  United 
States,  in  reference  to  a  bill  before  Congress,  dated  June  6,  1866,  refer  to  causes  of 
complaint  brought  before  them  through  one  of  their  officers.  They  say  that,  al¬ 
though  they  have  recently  discovered  some  irregularities  in  connection  with  railroad 
fares,  of  which  they  have  reason  to  complain,  they  are  assured  and  believe  that  all 
causes  of  complaint  had  been  promptly  removed.  The  Commissioners  are  right 
to  compel  those  who  avail  themselves  of  the  privilege  of  sale  under  their  roof  to 
act  in  the  most  loyal  fairness  to  their  clients;  but,  be  the  ‘irregularities’  what 
they  may,  they  are  but  trifling  indeed  when  contrasted  with  the  abominable  frauds 
— tlie  flagitious  robberies  at  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic — practised  only  a  few  years 
since,  and  practised  with  almost  entire  impunity. 


202 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


Tlie  baggage  of  tlie  emigrant,  which  had  been  so  long 
the  prey  of  the  lodging-house  keeper,  the  runner,  and  the 
‘smasher,’  is  now  not  only  retained  in  safe  custody  in 
compartments  well  adapted  to  that  purpose,  but  is  fre¬ 
quently  held  as  a  pledge  for  the  repayment  of  advances 
made  by  the  Commissioners  to  assist  their  owners  to  pro¬ 
ceed  on  their  intended  journey.  There  is,  however,  no 
charge  made  for  its  custody,  neither  is  interest  required  to 
be  paid  for  the  loan  or  advance.  I  have  seen  quantities  of 
boxes,  trunks,  and  packages  o£  various  kinds,  duly  marked 
and  lettered,  and  safely  stowed  away,  to  be  kept  until  the 
owners  found  it  convenient  or  necessary  to  send  for  their 
effects,  or,  in  case  advances  had  been  made  on  their 
security,  until  they  were  in  a  position  to  redeem  them. 

This  plan  of  making  advances  on  the  security  of  the  bag¬ 
gage,  or  portions  of  the  baggage  of  the  emigrant,  which 
protects  it  from  being  plundered,  and  enables  the  individual 
or  the  family  destined  for  the  interior  to  proceed  on  their 
route,  has  now  been  in  practice  fully  ten  years,  and  has 
been  attended  with  great  good.  The  advance  does  not  in 
any  case  exceed  a  few  dollars  ;  but  the  possession  or  the 
want  of  these  few  dollars  may,  at  such  a  moment,  deter¬ 
mine  the  future  fate  of  an  entire  family.  In  their  report 
for  1865,  the  Commissioners  bear  testimony  to  the  good 
which  these  advances  have  done.  Assistance  has  been  ren¬ 
dered  to  many  who  might  otherwise  have  become  the  prey 
of  fraud,  or  have  fallen  into  destitution,  ‘  whilst,’  as  they 
state,  ‘  the  character  of  the  assistance  was  such  as  not  to 
lessen  the  feeling  of  independent  self-reliance.’  The  small 
amount  of  $112  was  advanced  in  1856  to  nineteen  fam¬ 
ilies,  or  about  $61  per  family.  This  had  been  punctually 
repaid.  The  total  amount  advanced  from  August  1856, 
when  the  system  was  first  adopted,  to  the  end  of  1865,  was 
$23,215  ;  the  number  of  advances,  whether  to  individuals 
or  families,  being  2,391.  Of  this  amount,  there  remained 
unpaid  but  1,376, 


A  WORD  OF  ADVICE. 


203 


Another  important  department  may  be  described  as  the 
letter  or  correspondence  department,  the  value  of  which 
is  becoming  every  year  more  fully  appreciated,  as  well  by 
emigrants  as  by  their  friends  in  America  and  at  home. 
Suppose  an  emigrant,  on3*  arrival  at  New  York,  to  be  with¬ 
out  the  means  of  proceeding  inland,  or  disappointed  in  not 
receiving  a  communication  from  a  friend  or  member  of  his 
or  her  family,  a  letter,  announcing  the  person’s  arrival,  and 
asking  for  assistance,  is  at  once  written  by  a  clerk  specially 
appointed  for  that  purpose  ;  and  in  very  many  cases  the 
appeal  so  made  is  promptly  responded  to,  and  the  emigrant 
is  thus  enabled  to  proceed  onwards.  In  the  year  18G6, 
there  were  nearly  3,000  such  letters  written,  stamped,  and 
posted,  free  of  all  charge  to  the  parties  interested.  Of  these 
letters  2,516  were  written  in  English,  the  balance  in  Ger¬ 
man  and  other  languages.  The  value  of  this  admirable 
system  may  be  shown  by  the  fact,  that  the  amount  of 
money  received  in  1866,  in  reply  to  letters  from  the  Land¬ 
ing  Depot  for  recently  arrived  emigrants,  and  applied  to 
their  forwarding,  was  $24,385. 

It  is  of  the  utmost  consequence  that  attention  should 
here  be  directed  to  what  has  been,  and  must  ever  be,  a 
source  of  bitter  disappointment,  if  not  of  the  greatest 
affliction  to  individuals  and  families  ;  namely,  the  misdirec¬ 
tion  of  letters,  owing  to  the  habit  of  not  giving  the  full 
address,  or  the  custom  common  with  Irish  women  of  the 
humbler  class,  of  calling  themselves  by  their  maiden  instead 
of  their  married  names.  It  would  be  an  act  of  great 
humanity  on  the  part  of  those  who  are  in  a  position  to 
advise  the  emigrant,  or  the  friends  of  the  emigrant,  whether 
at  home  or  in  America,  to  see  that  names  are  written 
accurately,  and  that  addresses,  especially  American,  are 
given  fully — that  is,  that  the  city,  county,  or  State,  should 
be  mentioned ;  and  lastly,  that  the  envelope,  which  bears 
the  post  mark  on  it,  should  be  retained  as  well  as  the 
letter.  An  instance  or  two  in  point,  and  which  I  select 


20  A 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


out  of  many,  will  exbibit  the  necessity  of  tliis  advice  being 
attended  to  at  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 

Mary  Sullivan  has  come  to  America  in  search  of  her 
husband.  Having  some  vague  notion  of  his  whereabouts, 
letters  are  despatched  to  various  persons  in  the  direction 
supposed  to  be  indicated.  No  such  person  as  Daniel  Sul¬ 
livan,  ewho  came  to  America  four  years  ago,’  is  to  be 
found.  Poor  Mary  Sullivan  is  in  despair.  But  at  length, 
owing  to  some  chance  observation  which  drops  from  the 
afflicted  wife,  it  turns  out  that  Sullivan  was  her  maiden 
name,  and  that  her  husband  was  Daniel  M’Carthy,  and  not 
Daniel  Sullivan.  Letters  are  again  despatched,  and  Daniel 
and  Mary  are  once  more  united. 

A  woman  arrives  with  her  family.  She  has  a  letter 
from  her  son  in  Washington,  or  Jacksonville,  or  Newtown, 
and  she  desires  to  inform  him  that  she  is  in  New  York, 
awaiting  him.  There  is  his  letter,  and  she  can  tell  no 
more  about  it ;  all  she  knows  is,  that  her  son  is  in  the  place 
mentioned  ;  and  1  why  shouldn’t  he  be  there,  she’d  like  to 
know?’  But  what  Washington  ?  what  Jacksonville?  what 
Newtown  ?  There  are  hundreds  of  places  with  similar 
names  in  the  United  States ;  and  which  is  it  ?  Where,  she 
is  asked,  is  the  envelope  of  the  letter ;  for  that  would  have 
the  post  mark,  which,  if  not  obliterated  or  indistinct,  would 
be  the  best  of  all  possible  guides.  *  Oh,  sure,’  the  simple 
woman  replies,  c  I  lost  that :  but  there  was  nothing  on  that 
but  where  I  lived  when  I  was  in  Ireland  ;  sure  ’tis  all  in  my 
son’s  letter.’  The  envelope  lost,  and  there  being  no  address 
in  the  letter,  the  Commissioners  have  to  communicate  with 
all  the  Washingtons,  or  Jacksonvilles,  or  Newtowns  in  the 
country  ;  and  probably  it  is  owing  to  the  enquiries  of  tho 
priest  of  the  locality  in  which  the  son  resides  or  is  at  work 
that  the  family  are  ultimately  brought  together. 

A  young  woman,  Ellen  T - ,  arrived  early  in  the 

present  year,  to  join  her  brother,  who  was  in  a  certain 
town  in  Pennsylvania,  whence  he  wrote  to  her.  She  was 
sent  to  Ward’s  Island,  and  her  brother  was  written  to.  No 


WORKING  OF  THE  SYSTEM. 


205 


answer.  Another  letter  was  sent,  but  with  the  same  result. 
The  sister  is  safe  in  the  Refuge  at  Ward’s  Island,  but 
anxious  and  impatient.  Time  passes — still  no  tidings.  At 
length  she  abandons  all  hope  of  finding  her  brother,  and 
determines  to  do  something  for  herself ;  and  actually  as 
she  is  leaving  the  office  with  this  intention,  the  brother 
makes  his  appearance.  What  was  the  cause  of  the  delay  ? 
His  explanation  is  simple  enough — he  had  left  the  place 
from  which  he  had  written  to  his  sister  and  gone  to  ano¬ 
ther  place,  and  ‘he  hadn’t  the  gumption’  to  leave  his  new 
address  with  the  postmaster. 

Shortly  before  I  left  New  York  an  instance  occurred 
which  impressed  me  with  the  value  of  the  present  system, 
under  which  such  care  is  taken  of  the  interests  of  the 
emigrants.  A  young  girl  arrived  out  by  a  certain  steamer, 
and  being  taken  sick  of  fever  was  sent  to  the  hospital  at 
Ward’s  Island.  She  said  her  father  was  in  Boston,  but 
she  did  not  know  his  address.  Her  father,  expecting  her 
arrival,  telegraphed  to  the  agents  in  New  York,  enquiring 
if  his  daughter  had  come.  The  agents,  whether  ignorant 
or  careless,  replied  by  telegraph — ‘No.’  The  father,  not 
satisfied  with  the  answer,  wrote  to  the  Commissioners  of 
Emigration,  and  they  at  once  notified  to  him  that  his 
daughter  had  arrived,  and  was  then  in  hospital  at  Ward’s 
Island.  He  started  from  Boston  without  delay;  and  I 
had  the  assurance  of  the  admirable  physician  by  whom 
she  was  attended,*  that  the  interview  with  her  father  saved 
the  daughter’s  life,  which  was  at  the  time  in  danger. 

Innumerable  cases  might  be  given  in-  proof  of  the 
inconvenience  and  suffering — oftentimes  the  gravest  in¬ 
jury — entailed  on  emigrants,  especially  young  girls,  through 
this  neglect  of  sending  the  address  accurately  and  fully, 
and  retaining  it  when  received ;  also  of  women  giving 
their  maiden  instead  of  their  married  name  ;  of  not  having 


*  Dr.  John  Dwyer,  a  trne-hearted  and  kindly  Irishman,  who  was  one  of  the 
military  surgeons  attached  to  Corcoran’s  Irish  Legion. 


206 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


the  name  written  distinctly,  and  of  saying  the  name  is 
O’Reily  when  it  is  Riley,  or  Donnelly  when  it  is  O’Donnell. 
Mistakes,  perhaps  apparently  trifling,  are  quite  sufficient  to 
keep  the  nearest  and  dearest  relatives  apart,  and  deprive 
the  young  and  inexperienced  girl  of  the  much-needed 
protection  of  a  brother  or  a  father. 

The  titles  by  which  the  General  Superintendent  is 
addressed  are  very  varied.  At  one  time  he  is  styled  ‘  The 
Mayor  of  Castle  Garden,’  at  another  ‘  The  Commander,’  at 
another  ‘  The  Keeper,’  and  not  unfrequently  ‘  Head  Gene¬ 
ral  !  ’  The  mistake  of  ‘  Blackbird’s  Island  for  ‘  Blackwell’s 
Island,  in  which  there  is  a  penitentiary,  is  not  altogether 
inappropriate ;  but  that  of  mistaking  a  General  officer  for 
a  Police  officer  was  much  more  serious,  as  witness  the 
following : — 

Two  country  girls,  recently  arrived  from  ‘  Sweet  Tippe¬ 
rary,’  with  the  painting  of  nature  on  their  healthy  cheeks, 
received  from  one  of  the  clerks  a  written  card  bearing  the 
address  of  their  friends  in  the  upper  part  of  the  city,  and 
were  directed  to  apply  for  information  on  their  way  to  the 
first  policeman  they  met ;  and  one  of  these  blue-coated 
brass-buttoned  dignitaries,  on  duty  at  the  Depot,  was 
pointed  out  to  them  for  their  guidance.  ‘  Thank  your 
honour  kindly,  we’ll  be  sure  not  to  mistake  the  pelliceman 
when  we  want  him,’  said  the  rosiest,  who  did  all  the  talking. 
It  was  at  the  early  part  of  the  war,  when  the  streets  were 
full  of  blue  Federal  uniforms.  The  two  country  girls  set 
off  rejoicing,  but  had  not  been  gone  many  minutes  when 
they  were  back  again,  out  of  breath  and  greatly  flurried. 
‘Well,’  said  the  clerk,  6 what  brings  you  back?’  ‘Oh, 
sure  your  honour,  we  did. just  as  your  honour  tould  us. 
We  went  up  the  wide  stlireet  ye  call  Broadway,  and  when 
we  kem  to  the  big  church  beyant,  with  the  cross  on  it, 
sure  there  we  saw  a  gintleman  with  a  blue  coat  and  gould 
buttons,  and  a  cocked  hat  on  his  head,  and  a  fine  feather 
in  it,  and  a  swoord  by  his  side ;  and  Mary  and  meself 


INTELLIGENCE  AND  LABOUR  DEPARTMENT. 


207 


thought  he  must  be  the  head  of  all  the  Pellice.  So  we 
made  bould  to  tell  that  your  honour  tould  us  to  ax  him 
which  was  the  way  to  the  third  Avany  cars,  and  sure  he 
tould  us  to  “  go  to  the  Divil  ” — so  we  kem  straight  back 
to  your  honour.’  The  clerk,  who  was  a  good  judge  of  a 
joke,  looked  steadily  at  the  speaker ;  but  she  seemed 
utterly  unconscious  of  having  perpetrated  a  bon  mot. 

There  is  another  department  at  Castle  Garden,  which 
has  proved  of  immense  advantage  to  emigrants  of  both 
sexes — an  Intelligence  Office  and  Labour  Exchange.  For¬ 
tunately  for  the  interests  of  those  who  desire  to  employ  and 
to  be  employed,  this  is  becoming  every  day  better  known, 
and  consequently  more  generally  availed  of  ;  and  through 
its  operation  employment  is  obtained  for  all  kinds  of 
labour,  agricultural,  manufacturing,  and  domestic.  There 
are  two  such  offices  in  the  building,  one  for  men  and  the 
other  for  women.  A  register,  which  I  had  the  opportunity 
of  examining,  is  carefully  kept,  in  which  the  names  of 
persons  requiring  employment,  or  wanting  to  employ 
hands,  are  entered  ;  and  in  which,  in  case  of  hiring,  all 
necessary  particulars  are  likewise  set  down.  This  register 
is  thus  not  only  a  means  of  affording  useful  information 
respecting  individuals  to  friends  who  seek  intelligence  of 
them,  but  also  of  protection  to  the  parties  employed  ;  inas¬ 
much  as  if  the  employer  violates  his  contract — which  is 
embodied  in  his  proposal — he  may  be  sued  on  the  part  of 
the  Commissioners,  to  whom  the  emigrant  is  an  object  of 
official  care  for  five  years  after  his  or  her  landing  at  New 
York.  It  frequently  happens  that,  through  the  operation 
of  this  bureau,  persons  are  enabled  to  procure  employment 
on  landing,  and  go  off  at  once  to  those  who  hired  them  by 
anticipation.  But  it  must  be  understood  that  the  chances 
of  employment  are  generally  more  in  favour  of  females  than 
of  males  ;  and  that  they  are  terribly  against  the  latter, 
if  they  come  out  at  a  wrong  season — which  is  towards 
the  Autumn,  and  all  through  the  "Winter.  The  girl  or 


208 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


woman,  assuming  that  she  desires  to  work  and  is  capable 
of  it,  may  come  out  at  any  season  of  the  year,  Winter  or 
Summer  ;  but  the  man  who  looks  for  out-door  employ¬ 
ment  should  come  out  ivhen  the  Spring  ivork  is  opening — cer¬ 
tainly  not  sooner  than  March ,  or  later  than  October.  The 
total  number  of  males  provided  with  employment  last 
year — 18G6 — through  the  Intelligence  Office  and  Labour 
Exchange,  Castle  Garden,  was  2,191  ;  of  females  6,303  ; 
of  both  sexes,  through  the  Commissioners’  agents,  at 
Buffalo,  Albany,  and  Bochester,  1,289  ;  and  at  the  office 
of  the  German  Society  in  New  York,  988 — making  in  all, 
10,771. 

I  saw  a  number  of  women  and  girls,  generally  young, 
in  a  large  apartment  of  the  building,  employed  in  knit¬ 
ting  or  sewing,  waiting  to  be  hired  for  various  purposes, 
whether  in  factories,  in  stores,  or  in  domestic  occupations. 

One  of  the  latest  improvements  in  the  Emigration  Depot 
at  Castle  Garden  is  its  direct  connection  by  telegraph 
with  every  part  of  the  United  States  and  the  British  Pro¬ 
vinces  ;  so  that  an  emigrant,  on  landing,  may  at  once 
communicate  with  expecting  friends  in  any  part  of  North 
America. 

Having  referred  to  some  of  the  most  salient  features  of 
the  establishment  at  Castle  Garden,  I  may  briefly  glance 
at  Ward’s  Island,  which  is  the  crowning  feature  of  the 
whole,  combining  everything  necessary  for  the  care  and 
comfort  and  protection  of  the  stranger  which  enlightened 
benevolence  and  practical  experience  could  suggest,  or  the 
most  liberal  expenditure  could  provide.  When  one  remem¬ 
bers  the  bed  of  broken  straw,  the  rotten  flour,  the  decayed 
vegetables,  the  putrid  meat,  specially  procured  for  the  sick 
emigrants  of  1847  and  1848,  by  the  shipbrokers  of  that 
day,  one  may  well  invoke  a  blessing  on  the  noble-hearted 
men  to  whose  humanity,  courage,  and  perseverance  the  ex¬ 
isting  system  is  mainly  due. 

Removed,  by  its  insular  position,  from  all  contact  with 


MISS  NIGHTINGALE'S  OPINION. 


209 


the  city,  its  shores  washed  by  the  ever-moving  tide  of  the 
Sound,  lies  Ward’s  Island,  110  acres  of  which  are  now  in 
possession  of  the  Commissioners,  and  devoted  to  the  varied 
purposes  of  the  institution.  The  stranger  is  astonished  at 
beholding  the  splendid  groups  of  buildings  that,  as  it  were, 
crown  the  island — asylums,  refugees,  schools,  hospitals  ;  the 
latter  for  surgical,  medical,  and  contagious  cases.  These 
buildings  were  capable  last  year  of  accommodating  more 
than  1,500  persons,  and  they  are  added  to  according  to 
the  means  at  the  disposal  of  the  Commission.  On  the  10th 
of  August,  18G4,  was  laid  the  foundation  stone  of  .an  hos¬ 
pital  with  accommodation  for  500  patients  ;  which  hospital, 
designed  and  furnished  with  all  the  latest  improvements, 
is  admitted  by  competent  judges — including  Miss  Night¬ 
ingale'" — to  be  one  of  the  most  complete  in  the  world.  I 
visited  this  hospital  in  March,  18G7,  and  though  not 
qualified  to  pronounce  an  opinion  which  wrould  be  of  any 


*  Miss  Nightingale  addressed  the  following  letter  to  the  General  Agent 

‘  32,  South  Street,  Park  Lane,  London,  w.  : 

April,  22.  G5. 

‘  Sib, — I  have  extreme  pleasure  in  acknowledging  your  kind  note  of  Februai*y  22, 
and  some  copies  of  an  account  of  your  proceedings  at  the  laying  of  the  stone  of  your 
new  Emigrant  Hospital. 

‘  It  will  be  an  admirable  building,  and  much  better  than  any  civil  hospital  of  the 
size  in  this  country. 

‘It  is  a  noble  thing  to  do,  to  build  such  a  building— not  for  your  poor,  but 
ciirs. 

‘  All  to  whom  I  have  shown  copies  of  your  report  feel,  as  deeply  as  I  do,  the  im¬ 
portance  and  nobleness  of  your  work. 

‘I  have  distributed  the  copies  you  have  been  good  enough  to  send  me,  to  our 
Government  officials,  to  our  Commissioners  of  Emigration,  and  to  persons  in  au¬ 
thority  who  would  feel  a  deep  interest  in  your  work. 

‘  When  completed,  you  will  have  a  magnificent  example  of  sound  hospital 
construction,  and  one  which  certainly  deserves  to  be  fol. owed  elsewhere,  and  no 
doubt  will  be. 

‘I  wish  that  my  health  permitted  me  to  acknowledge  more  worthily  your 
noble  works,  or  to  come  over  and  see  them,  than  which  nothing  would  delight  me 
more. 

‘13ut  I  am  overwhelmed  with  business— complete  prisoner  to  my  room  from 
illness,  from  which  there  is  no  recovery  ;  and  I  can  only  beg  that  you  will  believe 
me,  S  r, 

‘  Your  most  faithful  and  grateful  servant, 

‘  Florence  Nightingale 

‘Beruar  1  Casserly,  Esq.,  General  Agent  Commissioner 
of  Emigration,  N .  Y.  ’ 


210 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


practical  value,  I  cannot  refrain  from  expressing  the 
admiration  with  which  I  beheld  so  noble  an  institution, 
equal  in  every  respect  to  the  best  I  had  seen  in  London, 
Koine,  Paris,  or  Vienna  ;  and,  from  its  peculiar  position,  es¬ 
pecially  its  entire  isolation  from  other  buildings,  and  being 
erected  on  an  island,  more  favourable  to  the  treatment 
and  recovery  of  the  patient  than  any  hospital  in  a  great 
city.  The  Commissioners  have  been  careful  to  provide  an 
unlimited  supply  of  the  pure  Croton  for  the  inmates  of  the 
different  establishments  under  their  charge  ;  and  to  another 
essential  requisite  of  health — a  thorough  system  of  drainage 
and  sewerage — they  have  devoted  considerable  attention. 
The  result  is  a  low  rate  of  mortality  in  hospital  and  asylum, 
among  infants  and  adults ;  which  contrasts  most  favourably 
with  institutions  of  a  similar  nature,  but  not  enjoying  the 
special  advantages  that  distinguish  those  of  Ward’s  Island, 
The  staff,  surgical  and  medical,  is  equal  to  the  necessity, 
and  consists  of  men  eminent  in  their  different  branches  of 
the  healing  art. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  contrast  the  number  of  persons, 
patients  or  inmates*  at  Ward’s  Island  on  the  30tli  o‘  June, 
1867,  with  the  number  at  the  corresponding  periods  of  the 
three  previous  years.  It  proves  two  things — the  inc'  oased 
demand  on  the  resources  of  the  institution  ;  also  the  diffi¬ 
culty  of  procuring  employment,  arising  not  only  from  the 
continued  overcrowding  of  New  York,  but  from  the  ina¬ 
bility  of  these  emigrants  to  push  on  to  the  West.  The 
total  number  of  inmates  in  1864,  while  the  war  was 
raging,  was  1,000.  In  1865  it  fell  to  851.  But  since  then 
the  number  has  been  seriously  added  to.  In  1866  it  was 
1,251,  and  on  the  30th  of  June,  1867,  it  rose  to  1,428. 
The  number  of  able-bodied  working  men  on  the  island, 
at  a  time  when  the  best  chances  of  employment  are  offered 
to  those  inclined  to  work,  is  still  more  significant.  In  1864 
the  number  was  42  ;  in  1865  it  fell  to  34  ;  in  1856  it  rose 
to  100 ;  and  in  1867  it  was  as  high  as  123.  The  sick 


NECESSITY  FOR  UNCEASING  VIGILANCE. 


211 


average  at  least  GOO,  the  balance  consisting  of  women  and 
children. 

There  may  be  other  features  of  this  unpaid  Commission 
to  which  I  should  have  referred,  inasmuch  as  it  has  afforded 
to  the  whole  country  an  example  of  what  practical  benevo¬ 
lence  and  public  spirit  are  capable  of  accomplishing  ;  but 
other  subjects  of  interest  demand  my  attention.  It  is, 
however,  satisfactory  to  know  that  the  active  attention  of 
Congress  and  the  Government  of  the  United  States  has 
been  directed  to  the  protection  of  foreign  emigrants,  and 
that  an  efficient  organisation  may  be  expected  in  the  most 
important  of  the  seaports.  From  the  report  of  the  Govern¬ 
ment  Commissioner  of  Emigration,  presented  to  Congress 
on  the  28th  of  February,  1866,  one  may  learn  how  formida¬ 
ble  is  the  evil  against  which  it  is  necessary  to  combat  with 
unabated  energy,  as  well  for  the  protection  of  the  helpless 
stranger,  as  for  the  interests  and  the  honour  of  the  great 
country  to  which,  from  many  motives  and  causes,  he  is 
attracted.  The  Government  Commissioner  states  that 
upon  entering  upon  the  duties  of  his  office  he  found  him¬ 
self  in  conflict  with  a  host  of  persons* who  had  been  long 
accustomed,  in  the  various  ports,  to  prey  upon  the  immi¬ 
grant.  Companies,  boards,  and  agencies,  with  sounding 
titles  and  high  professions,  were  ready  to  deceive  and 
plunder  him  at  every  turn,  and  it  required  prompt  and 
decisive  action  to  meet  this  great  and  growing  evil.  Many 
organisations,  proper  in  themselves,  but  representing  special 
interests,  were  simply  subserving  their  own  plans  and  the 
views  of  some  single  locality,  regardless  of  the  welfare  cf 
the  immigrant.  He  states  that  through  the  appointment 
of  a  superintendent  at  New  York,  his  bureau  has  been 
enabled  to  break  up  many  swindling  agencies  with  their 
runners,  and  protect  thousands  of  emigrants ;  and  he 
adds  :  *  This  work,  however,  never  ceases.  New  schemes 
of  fraud  spring  up  whenever  occasion  offers,  and  they  re¬ 
quire  continued  vigilance  to  suppress  them.’  The  ‘passenger 


212 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA 


laws  *  would  appear,  from  this  report,  to  be  systematically 
violated,  indeed  boldly  set  at  defiance  ;  and  more  stringent 
powers  are  demanded  for  tlieir  enforcement.* 

It  is  satisfactory  to  perceive  that,  at  least  up  to  the  time 
of  the  publication  of  the  report  in  question,  the  policy  of 
the  Government  Bureau  of  Emigration  was  to  act  in  har¬ 
mony  with  the  unpaid  Commission  in  New  York  ;  and  for 
the  interests  of  humanity  I  may  venture  to  express  an 
earnest  hope  that  no  change,  however  apparently  beneficial, 
may  have  the  effect — the  fatal  effect — of  interfering  with 
the  operation  or  impairing  the  efficiency  of  an  organisa¬ 
tion  which  has  rendered  inestimable  services  to  the  poor, 
the  feeble,  the  unprotected,  and  in  a  special  degree  to  those 
of  the  Irish  race.  The  words  of  Florence  Nightingale, 
when  acknowledging,  in  1866,  the  annual  Reports  which 
had  been  sent  to  her,  may  fittingly  conclude  this  branch  of 
my  subject  :  ‘  These  Iteports  are  most  business-like.  They 
‘  testify  to  an  amount  of  benevolent  and  successful  efforts 
‘on  behalf  of  the  over-crowded  old  States  of  Europe  of 
*  which  America  may  well  be  proud.’  f 


*  The  Commissioner  thus  reports  on  this  important  point : — 

‘In  order  to  ascertain  such  violations,  it  was  found  necessary  to  appoint  two 
officers,  with  the  consent  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  whose  duty  it  should  be  to 
board  every  immigrant  ship,  and  report  to  the  superintendent  whether  the  pro¬ 
visions  of  the  “  passenger  acts  ”  had  in  each  case  been  complied  with.  The 
importance  of  this  course  will  be  felt  when  it  is  stated  that  the  superintendent 
reports  to  this  bureau  that  of  the  ships  which  arrived  at  New  York  since  the 
existence  of  his  office,  there  were  none  which  had  not  violated  the  provisions  of  the 
Act  of  1860,  for  the  better  pro'ection  of  female  passengers.  One  hundred'  and 
eighteen  complaints  were  brought  before  him,  which  he  was  directed  to  refer  to 
the  United  states’  district  attorney,  under  whose  advice  he  dismissed  such  as  he 
was  satisfied  were  caused  by  ignorance  of  the  law,  and  where  no  injury  had  been 
sustained  by  the  immigrant.  Even  where  the  injury  had  been  gross,  the  super¬ 
intendent  found  a  successful  prosecution  almost  impossible  under  the  condition  of 
the  law  and  his  own  limited  powers.  Under  the  existing  laws  it  is  necessary  that 
the  complainant  institute  a  suit  against  the  master,  owner,  or  consignee  of  the 
vessel,  and  for  this  few  have  the  knowledge,  ability,  time,  or  means,  and  fewer 
the  courage.  Besides,  the  immigrant  cannot  remain  for  the  purposes  of  prosecu¬ 
tion.  I  he  remedy  for  this  seems  to  be  in  a  change  of  the  laws.’ 

t  One  of  the  most  recent  cases  on  record  is  the  worst  that  has  been  for  many 
years  brought  to  the  notice  of  the  public.  It  was  of  the  ship  ‘  Giuseppe  Baccariel,’ 
which  arrived  in  New  York  on  July  20,  1867,  from  Antwerp,  where  she  was 
chartered  by  A.  Straus  &  Co.  The  emigrants— 180  in  number — were  Germans 
and  German  Swiss.  Eighteen  persons  died  on  the  passage,  and  two  more  imme¬ 
diately  after  arrival.  The  emigrants  complained  to  the  Commissioners  that  they 
were  short  of  provisions;  that  the  water  was  not  drinkable,  being  kept  in  petro • 


TI1E  LAST  CASE  ONE  OF  THE  WORST. 


213 


leum  casks  ;  that  there  was  neither  tea  nor  sugar  on  board;  and  that  the  potatoes 
were  rotten.  The  Commissioners  instituted  an  inquiry,  which  resulted  in  proving 
the  truth  of  all  the  charges;  to  which  might  be  added  another — that  there  was 
neither  a  doctor  nor  a  drug  store  on  board!  Had  the  ship  been  longer  at  sea,  the 
mortality  would  have  been  moro  terrible,  as  the  survivors  were  pale  and  feeble, 
worn  and  emaciated,  and  some  suffering  from  diarrhoea  and  disorders  of  the 
bowels.  One  little  child  was  left  as  the  sole  representative  of  a  family  of  five 
who  sailed  from  Antwerp  in  perfect  health ;  the  boy’s  father,  brother,  and  sister 
having  died  on  board,  and  his  mother  in  the  hospital-ship  soon  after  reaching 
quarantine.  One  would  suppose  this  paragraph,  from  the  report  of  the  gentleman 
by  whom  the  atrocious  case  was  investigated  on  the  part  of  the  Commissioners,  had 
been  written  twenty  years  before  : — 

* 

‘  Second — The  water.  I  found  it  in  large  sperm  oil  casks,  the  oil  swimming  on 
the  surface.  I  tried  to  taste  a  glass,  but  the  smell  was  so  offensive  that  I  could 
not  overcome  my  disgust.  Captain  True  (referred  to  above),  however,  says  he 
drank  a  half  tumbler  of  the  water,  with  the  object  of  testing  it,  and  he  was  shortly 
afterwards  taken  with  a  severe  diarrhoea.  John  Bertram,  a  passenger  from  Ahr- 
buch,  Khenish  Prussia,  says,  under  oath,  that  his  dying  child  asked  for  some 
water,  and  that  the  cook  gave  him  some,  but  that  it  was  so  bad  it  had  to  be 
boiled,  in  oi’der  to  make  it  drinkable,  and  that  deponent  had  to  pay  five  francs  to 
♦he  cook  for  attending  to  him  and  his  family.  Third — The  bread.  Captain  True 
•says  that  the  bread  was  the  wrorst  he  ever  saw — mouldy  and  disgusting,  and  that 
from  one  piece  an  entire  bean  was  taken.  I  examined  the  biscuit,  of  which  I 
tasted  apiece;  it  was  of  the  worst  quality — sandy,  burned,  and  hardly  digestible- 
even  its  appearance  was  loathsome.’ 

Among  other  proceedings  of  the  Commissioners  was  the  adoption  of  a  reso¬ 
lution,  proposed  by  the  Hon.  Bichard  O’Gorman — one  of  those  Irishmen  who  is 
a  credit  and  an  honour  to  his  country, — referring  the  case  to  the  urgent  attention  of 
the  Government. 

Mr.  O’Gorman  is  one  of  the  ex-officio  members  of  the  Commission.  The 
others  are  the  Mayors  of  New  York  and  Brooklyn,  and  the  President  of  the 
German  Society. 

Mr.  O’Gorman  is  the  President  of  the  Irish  Emigrant  Society  of  New  York — an 
admirable  institution;  but  one  which  might  be  rendered  still  more  useful,  not 
only  in  diffusing  information  valuable  to  the  emigrant,  but  in  imparting  a  hea'thful 
impetus  to  the  occup  ition  of  the  land  by  the  agricultural  class  of  Irish  •ynigranU. 


214 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

Evil  of  remaining  in  the  great  Cities — Why  the  City  attracts  the 
new  Comer — Consequence  of  Overcrowding — The  Tenement 
Houses  of  New  York— Important  Official  Reports — Glimpses  of 
the  Reality — An  inviting  Picture — Misery  and  Slavery  combined 
— Inducements  to  Intemperance — Massacre  of  the  Innocents — Ill 
the  wrong  Place — Town  and  Country. 

IRELAND,  whence  a  great  tide  of  human  life  has-  been 
pouring  across  the  Atlantic  for  more  than  half  a  century, 
is  rightly  described  as  *  an  agricultural  country  ;  ’  by  wdiich 
is  meant  that  the  far  larger  portion  of  its  population  are 
devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  the  soil.  In  no  country  have 
the  peasantry  exhibited  a  stronger  or  more  passionate 
attachment  to  the  land  than  in  that  country  from  which 
such  myriads  have  gone  and  are  still  going  forth.  And 
yet  the  strange  fact,  indeed  the  serious  evil,  is,  that,  not¬ 
withstanding  the  vast  majority  of  those  who  emigrate  from 
Ireland  to  America  have  been  exclusively  engaged  in  the 
cultivation  of  the  soil — as  farmers,  farm-servants,  or  out¬ 
door  labourers — so  many  of  this  class  remain  in  cities  and 
towns,  for  which  they  are  not  best  suited  ;  rather  than  go 
to  the  country,  for  which  they  are  specially  suited,  and 
wmere  they  would  be  certain  to  secure  for  themselves  and 
their  families,  not  merely  a  home,  but  comfort  and  inde¬ 
pendence.  I  deliberately  assert  that  it  is  not  within  the 
power  of  language  to  describe  adequately,  much  less  ex¬ 
aggerate,  the  evil  consequences  of  this  unhappy  tendency 
of  the  Irish  to  congregate  in  the  large  towns  of  America. 
But  why  they  have  hitherto  done  -  so  may  be  accounted  for 
without  much  difficulty. 


WHY  THE  CITY  ATTRACTS  THE  NEW  COMER.  215 

Irish  emigrants  of  the  peasant  and  labouring  class  were 
generally  poor,  and  after  defraying  their  first  expenses  on 
landing  had  little  left  to  enable  them  to  push  their  way  into 
the  country  in  search  of  such  employment  as  was  best  suited 
to  their  knowledge  and  capacity :  though  had  they  known 
what  was  in  store  for  too  many  of  them  and  their  children, 
they  would  have  endured  the  severest  privation  and  braved 
any  hardship,  in  order  to  free  themselves  from  the  fatal 
spell  in  which  the  fascination  of  a  city  life  has  meshed  the 
souls  of  so  many  of  their  race.  Either  they  brought  little 
money  with  them,  and  were  therefore  unable  to  go  on ;  or 
that  little  was  plundered  from  them  by  those  -whose  trade 
it  was  to  prey  upon  the  inexperience  or  credulity  of  the 
new-comer.  Therefore,  to  them,  the  poor  or  the  plundered 
Irish  emigrants,  the  first  and  pressing  necessity  was  em¬ 
ployment  ;  and  so  splendid  seemed  the  result  of  that  em¬ 
ployment,  even  the  rudest  and  most  laborious  kind,  as  com¬ 
pared  with  what  they  were  able  to  earn  in  the  old  country, 
that  it  at  once  predisposed  them  in  favour  of  a  city  life. 
The  glittering  silver  dollar,  how  bright  it  looked,  and  how 
heavy  it  weighed,  when  contrasted  with  the  miserable  six¬ 
pence,  the  scanty  £  tenpenny-bit/  or  the  occasional  shilling, 
at  home !  Then  there  were  old  friends  and  former  com¬ 
panions  or  acquaintances  to  be  met  with  at  every  street- 
corner  ;  and  there  was  news  to  give,  and  news  to  receive — 
too  often,  perhaps,  in  the  liquor-store  or  dram-shop  kept 
by  a  countryman — probably  £a  neighbour’s  child/  or  ‘a 
decent  boy  from  the  next  ploughland.’  Then  £the  chapel 
was  handy/  and  £a  Christian  wouldn’t  be  overtaken  for 
want  of  a  priest;’  then  there  was  £tlie  schooling  conve¬ 
nient  for  the  children,  poor  things,’ — so  the  glorious  chance 
was  lost ;  and  the  simple,  innocent  countryman,  to  whom 
the  trees  of  the  virgin  forest  were  nodding  their  branches 
in  friendly  invitation,  and  the  blooming  prairie  expanded 
its  fruitful  bosom  in  vain,  became  the  denizen  of  a  city, 
for  which  he  was  unqualified  by  training,  by  habit,  and  by 


216 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


association.  Possibly  it  was  the  mother’s  courage  that 
failed  her  as  she  glanced  at  the  flock  of  little  ones  who 
clustered  around  her,  or  timidly  clung  to  her  skirts,  and  she 
thought  of  the  new  dangers  and  further  perils  that  awaited 
them  ;  and  it  was  her  maternal  influence  that  was  flung 
into  the  trembling  balance  against  the  country  and  in 
favour  of  the  city.  Or  employment  was  readily  found  for 
one  of  the  girls,  or  one  or  two  of  the  boys,  and  things 
looked  so  hopeful  in  the  fine  place  that  all  thoughts  of  the 
fresh,  breezy,  healthful  plain  or  hill-side  were  shut  out  at 
that  supreme  moment  of  the  emigrant’s  destiny  ;  though 
many  a  time  after  did  he  and  they  long  for  one  breath  of 
pure  air,  as  they  languished  in  the  stifling  heat  of  a  summer 
in  a  tenement  house.  Or  the  pioneer  of  the  family — most 
likely  a  young  girl — had  found  good  employment,  and, 
with  the  fruits  of  her  honest  toil,  had  gradually  brought 
out  brothers  and  sisters,  father  and  mother,  for  whose 
companionship  her  heart  ever  yearned ;  and  possibly  her 
affection  was  stronger  than  her  prudence,  or  she  knew 
nothing  of  the  West  and  its  limitless  resources.  Or  sick¬ 
ness,  that  had  followed  the  emigrant’s  family  across  the 
ocean,  fastened  upon  some  member  of  the  group  as  they 
touched  the  soil  for  which  they  had  so  ardently  prayed; 
and  though  the  fever  or  the  cholera  did  not  destroy  a 
precious  life,  it  did  the  almost  as  precious  opportunity  of 
a  better  future!  the  spring  of  that  energy  which  was  suffi¬ 
cient  to  break  asunder  the  ties  and  habits  of  previous  years 
— sufficient  for  flight  from  home  and  country — was  broken  ; 
and  those  who  faced  America  in  high  hope  were  thence¬ 
forth  added  to  the  teeming  population  of  a  city — to  which 
class,  it  might  be  painful  to  speculate. 

It  is  easy  enough  to  explain  why  and  how  those  who 
should  not  have  remained  in  the  great  cities  did  so  ;  but  it 
is  not  so  easy  to  depict  the  evils  which  have  flowed,  which 
daily  flow,  which,  unhappily  for  the  race,  must  continue  to 
and  from  the  pernicious  tendency  of  the  Irish  peasant  to 


CONSEQUENCE  OF  OVERCROWDING. 


217 


adopt  a  mode  of  livelihood  for  which  he  is  not  suited  by 
previous  knowledge  or  training,  and  to  place  himself  in  a 
position  dangerous  to  his  morals,  if  not  fatal  to  his  inde¬ 
pendence.  These  evils  may  be  indicated,  though  they 
cannot  be  adequately  described. 

This  headlong  rushing  into  the  great  cities  has  the 
necessary  effect  of  unduly  adding  to  their  population, 
thereby  overtaxing  their  resources,  however  large  or  even 
extraordinary  these  resources  may  be,  and  of  rudely  dis¬ 
turbing  the  balance  of  supply  and  demand.  The  hands — the 
men,  women,  and  children — thus  become  too  many  for  the 
work  to  be  done,  as  the  work  becomes  too  little  for  the 
hands  willing  and  able  to  do  it.  What  is  worse,  there  are 
too  many  mouths  for  the  bread  of  independence ;  and 
thus  the  bread  of  charity  has  to  supplement  the  bread 
which  is  purchased  with  the  sweat  of  the  brow.  Happy 
would  it  be  for  the  poor  in  the  towns  of  America,  as  else- 
where,  if  the  bread,  of  charity  were  the  only  bread  with 
which  the  bread  of  independence  is  supplemented.  But 
there  is  also  the  bread  of  degradation,  and  the  bread 
of  crime.  And  wdien  the  moral  principle  is  blunted  by 
abject  misery,  or  weakened  by  disappointments  and  pri¬ 
vation,  there  is  but  a  narrow  barrier  between  poverty  and 
crime  ;  and  this,  too  frequently,  is  soon  passed.  For  such 
labour  as  is  thus  recklessly  poured  into  the  great  towns 
there  is  constant  peril.  It  is  true,  there  are  seasons  when 
there  is  a  glut  of  work,  when  the  demand  exceeds  the 
supply — when  some  gigantic  industry  or  some  sudden  ne¬ 
cessity  clamours  for  additional  hands ;  but  there  are  also, 
and  more  frequently,  seasons  wdien  work  is  slack,  seasons 
of  little  employment,  seasons  of  utter  paralysis  and  stagna¬ 
tion.  Cities  are  liable  to  occasional  depressions  of  trade, 
resulting  from  over  production,  or  the  successful  rivalry  of 
foreign  nations,  or  even  portions  of  the  same  country  ;  or 
there  are  smashings  of  banks,  and  commercial  panics, 

and  periods  of  general  mistrust.  Or,  owing  to  the  intense 

10 


213 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


severity  of  certain  seasons,  there  is  a  total  cessation  of 
employments  of  particular  kinds,  by  which  vast  numbers  of 
people  are  flung  idle  on  the  streets.  If  at  once  employed 
and  provident,  the  condition  of  the  ^working  population 
in  the  towns  is  happy  enough ;  but  if  there  be  no  provi¬ 
dence  while  there  is  employment,  one  may  imagine  how 
it  fares  with  the  family  who  are  destitute  alike  of  em¬ 
ployment  and  the  will  or  capacity  for  husbanding  its  fruits. 
It  is  hard  enough  for  the  honest  thrifty  working  man  to 
hold  his  own  in  the  great  towns  of  America,  for  rents  are 
high,  and  living  is  dear,  and  the  cost  of  clothes  and  other 
necessaries  is  enormous ;  but  when  the  work  fails,  or  stops, 
terrible  indeed  is  his  position.  Then  does  the  Irish  peasant 
realise  the  fatal  blunder  he  has  made,  in  having  chosen 
the  town,  with  all  its  risks,  and  dangers,  and  sad  uncer¬ 
tainties,  instead  of  having  gone  into  the  country,  no  matter 
where,  and  adopted  the  industry  for  which  he  was  best 
suited.  Possibly,  the  fault  was  not  his,  of  having  selected 
the  wrong  place  for  his  great  venture  in  life  ;  but  whether 
his  adoption  of  the  town  in  preference  to  the  country  were 
voluntary,  or  the  result  of  circumstance,  the  evil  is  done, 
and  he  and  his  family  must  reap  the  consequences,  what¬ 
ever  these  may  be. 

The  evil  of  overcrowding  is  magnified  to  a  prodigious 
extent  in  New  York,  which,  being  the  port  of  arrival — 
the  Gate  of  the  New  World — receives  a  certain  addition 
to  its  population  from  almost  every  ship-load  of  emigrants 
that  passes  through  Castle  Garden.  There  is  scarcely  any 
city  in  the  world  possessing  greater  resources  than  New 
York,  but  these  resources  have  long  since  been  strained 
to  the  very  uttermost  to  meet  the  yearly  increasing 
demands  created  by  this  continuous  accession  to  its  in¬ 
habitants  ;  and  if  there  be  not  some  check  put  to  this 
undue  increase  of  the  population,  for  which  even  the 
available  space  is  altogether  inadequate,  it  is  difficult  to 
think  what  the  consequences  must  be.  Every  succeeding 


THE  TENEMENT  HOUSES  OF  NEW  YORK. 


219 


year  tends  to  aggravate  the  existing  evils,  which,  while 
rendering  the  necessity  for  a  remedy  more  urgent,  also 
render  its  nature  and  its  application  more  difficult. 

As  in  all  cities  growing  in  wealth  and  in  population, 
the  dwelling  accommodation  of  the  poor  is  yearly  sacrificed 
to  the  increasing  necessities  or  luxury  of  the  rich.  "While 
spacious  streets  and  grand  mansions  are  on  the  increase, 
the  portions  of  the  city  in  which  the  working  classes  once 
found  an  economical  residence,  are  being  steadily  en¬ 
croached  upon — just  as  the  artisan  and  labouring  popula¬ 
tion  of  the  City  of  London  are  driven  from  their  homes  by 
the  inexorable  march  of  city  improvements,  and  streets  and 
courts  and  alleys  are  swallowed  up  by  a  great  thoroughfare 
or  a  gigantic  railway  terminus.  There  is  some  resource 
in  London,  as  the  working  class  may  move  to  some  por¬ 
tion  of  the  vast  Metropolitan  district,  though  not  without 
serious  inconvenience  ;  but  unless  the  fast  increasing  mul¬ 
titudes  that  seem  determined  to  settle  in  New  York,  adopt 
the  Chinese  mode  of  supplementing  the  space  on  shore  by 
habitation  in  boat  and  raft  on  water,  they  must  be  content 
to  dwell  in  unwholesome  and  noisome  cellars,  or  crowd  in 
the  small  and  costly  rooms  into  which  the  tenement  houses 
are  divided. 

As  stated  on  official  authority,  there  are  1G,000  tene¬ 
ment  houses  in  New  York,  and  in  these  there  dwell  more 
than  half  a  million  of  people !  This  astounding  fact  is 
of  itself  so  suggestive  of  misery  and  evil,  that  it  scarcely 
requires  to  be  enlarged  upon  ;  but  some  details  will  best 
exhibit  the  mischievous  consequences  of  overcrowding — 
not  by  the  class  who,  at  home  in  Ireland,  have  lived  in 
cities,  and  been  accustomed  to  city-life  and  city  pursuits  ; 
but  by  a  class  the  majority  of  whom  rarely  if  ever  entered 
a  city  in  the  old  country  until  they  were  on  their  way  to 
the  port  of  embarkation — by  those  whose  right  place  in 
America  is  the  country,  and  whose  natural  pursuit  is  the 
cultivation  of  the  land.  Let  the  reader  glance  at  the 


220 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


tenement  houses — those  houses  and  ‘cellars’  in  which  the 
working  masses  of  New  York  swarm — those  delightful 
abodes  for  which  so  many  of  the  hardy  peasantry  of  Ire¬ 
land  madly  surrender  the  roomy  log-cabin  of  the  clearing, 
and  the  frame  house  of  a  few  years  after,  together  with 
almost  certain  independence  and  prosperity.  I  have 
entered  several  of  these  tenement  houses,  in  company 
with  one  to  whom  their  inmates  were  well  known ;  I  have 
spoken  to  the  tenants  of  the  different  flats,  and  have 
minutely  examined  everything  that  could  enlighten  me  as 
to  their  real  condition ;  but  I  deem  it  well  to  rely  rather 
on  official  statements,  which  are  based  on  the  most  ac¬ 
curate  knowledge,  and  are  above  the  suspicion  of  exag¬ 
geration. 

The  Commissioners  of  the  Metropolitan  Board  of  Health, 
in  their  report  for  1866,  say: — 

‘  The  first,  and  at  all  times  the  most  prolific  cause  of  disease,  was 
found  to  be  the  insalubrious  condition  of  most  of  the  tenement  houses 
in  the  cities  of  New  York  and  Brooklyn.  These  houses  are  generally 
built  without  any  reference  to  the  health  or  comfort  of  the  occupant, 
but  simply  with  a  view  to  economy  and  profit  to  the  owner.  The 
provision  for  ventilation  and  light  is  very  insufficient,  and  the 
arrangement  of  water-closets  or  privies  could  hardly  be  worse  if 
actually  intended  to  produce  disease.  These  houses  were  almost  in¬ 
variably  crowded,  and  ill-ventilated  to  such  a  degree  as  to  render 
the  air  within  them  continually  impure  and  offensive.  .  .  .  The 

basements  were  often  entirely  below  ground,  the  ceiling  being  a  foot  or 
two  below  the  level  of  the  street,  and  was  necessarily  far  more  damp, 

dark,  and  ill-ventilated  than  the  remainder  of  the  house.  The  cel- 
7  %  # 

lars,  when  unoccupied,  were  frequently  flooaea  to  the  depth  of  several 
■inches  with  stagnant  water,  and  were  made  the  receptacles  of  garbage, 
and  refuse  matter  of  every  description.  ...  In  many  cases,  the 
cellars  were  constantly  occupied,  and  sometimes  used  as  lodging-houses , 
•vhere  there  was  no  ventilation  save  by  the  entrance,  and  in  which  the 
occupants  were  entirely  dependent  upon  artificial  light  by  day  as 
well  as  by  night.  Such  was  the  character  of  a  vast  number  of  the 
tenement  houses  in  the  lower  parts  of  the  city  of  New  York,  and 
along  its  eastern  and  western  borders.  Disease,  especially  in  the  form 
of  ferers  of  a  typhoid  character,  was  constantly  present  in  these  dwel- 


IMPORTANT  OFFICIAL  REPORTS. 


221 


!ing3,  and  every  now  and  then  became  in  more  than  one  cf  them  epi¬ 
demic.  It  was  found  that  in  one  of  these  twenty  cases  of  typhus  had 
occurred  during  the  previous  year. 

Tlie  poor  Irishman  in  New  York  is  not  without  ex¬ 
periencing  the  tender  mercies  of  ‘middlemen/  to  whom 
in  many  instances  the  tenement  houses  are  leased.  These 
middlemen  are  generally  irresponsible  parties,  with  no 
interest  in  the  property  except  its  immediate  profits,  and 
who  destroyed  the  original  ventilation,  such  as  it  was,  by  the 
simple  process  of  dividing  the  rooms  into  smaller  ones,  and 
by  crowding  three  or  four  families  into  a  space  originally 
intended  for  a  single  family. 

In  1864,  the  Citizens’  Association  of  New  York  was  or¬ 
ganised,  its  main  object  being  the  promotion  of  Sanitary 
Reform.  It  has  already  effected  much  service  through  the 
information  it  has  afforded  in  its  valuable  publications, 
which  exhibit  in  a  striking  manner  the  enormous  evil  of 
overcrowding,  and  its  consequences  to  the  morals  and 
health  of  the  community.  Associated  with  this  organisa¬ 
tion  are  many  eminent  physicians,  who  constitute  the 
Council  of  Hygiene,  whose  report  forms  one  of  the  most 
important  features  of  the  volume.  Having  divided  the 
city  into  districts  for  the  purposo  of  inspection,  the 
Council  appointed  competent  medical  officers  for  that 
task  ;  and  from  the  detailed  reports  of  these  inspectors  an 
accurate  notion  may  be  obtained  of  the  sanitary  condition 
of  each  district. 

That  the  overcrowding  of  New  York  is  far  in  excess  of 
all  other  cities,  may  be  shown  by  a  comparison  of  that 
city  with  London.  In  the  English  metropolis,  the  highest 
rate  of  imputation  to  the  square  mile  is  in  East  London, 
where,  according  to  the  report  of  a  recent  Royal  Commis¬ 
sion,  it  reached  as  high  as  175,816.  Whereas  in  certain 
portions  of  the  Fourth  Ward  of  New  York,  the  tenant-house 
population  were  in  1864  ‘packet  at  the  rate  of  about  290,000 
inhabitants  to  the  square  mile.  Nor  is  it  at  all  probable 


222 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


that  things  have  come  to  the  worst  in  this  respect.  The 
Council  of  Hygiene,  in  their  report,  take  rather  a  despond¬ 
ing  view  of  the  future.  Not  only  has  New  York  already  be¬ 
come  one  of  the  most  populous  and  densely  crowded  cities 
in  the  world,  ‘  but  it  is  plainly  its  destiny  to  become  at  once 
the  most  populous  and  the  most  overcrowded  of  the  great 
maritime  cities.’  The  evils,  therefore,  which  now  imperil 
health  and  morals  in  consequence  of  overcrowding,  will 
increase  with  the  increase  of  the  population. 

That  there  are  several  tenement  houses  constructed  with 
a  due  regard  for  their  intended  object — the  comfort  and 
accommodation  of  their  inmates — is  true  ;  but  such  houses 
are  rather  the  exception  than  the  rule,  and  the  rent  de¬ 
manded  for  cleanly  and  commodious  apartments  in  a  tene¬ 
ment  provided  with  the  requisite  appliances,  places  them 
beyond  the  means  of  the  mass  of  the  working  population. 
It  is  not  with  houses  of  this  class,  but  of  the  kind  which 
are  occupied  by  the  poorer  portion  of  the  community,  in¬ 
cluding  of  necessity  those  who  have  made  the  fatal  mistake 
of  stopping  in  New  York,  instead  of  pushing  on  to  the 
country  and  occupying  the  land,  that  I  propose  to  deal.  A 
few  extracts,  taken  at  random  from  some  of  the  reports, 
will  place  the  reader  sufficiently  in  possession  of  the  evils 
of  overcrowding,  and  the  perils,  alike  to  soul  and  body,  of 
the  tenement  system,  which  is  now,  though  late,  arousing 
the  alarmed  attention  of  statesmen  and  philanthropists. 

Dr.  Monnell,  to  whom  the  inspection  of  the  ‘  First 
Sanitary  District’  was  entrusted,  states  that  the  inhabi¬ 
tants  of  this  district,  which  comprises  part  of  the  First  and 
the  whole  of  the  Third  Ward,  are  largely  of  foreign  birth 
— about  one-half  Irish,  one-quarter  Germans,  and  the  re¬ 
mainder  Americans,  Swedes,  Danes,  &c.  Two-thirds  of 
the  resident  population  consist  of  labourers  and  mechanics 
with  their  families.  The  general  characteristics  are,  ‘a 
medium  grade  of  intelligence  and  a  commendable  amount 
of  industry,  intermixed  largely  with  ignorance,  depravity. 


GLIMPSES  OF  TI1E  REALITY. 


223 


pauperism,  and  dissipation  of  the  most  abandoned  charac¬ 
ter.’  As  an  illustration  of  the  evil  of  over-crowding,  and 
the  perilous  characteristics  of  a  large  class  of  the  floating 
population — consisting  in  this  district  of  ‘travellers,  emi¬ 
grants,  sailors,  and  vagabonds  without  a  habitation  and 
almost  without  a  name  ’ — that  mingle  with  the  more  per¬ 
manent  residents  of  this  lower  district  of  the  city,  Dr. 
Monnell  thus  makes  the  reader  acquainted  with  a  certain 
squalid  old  tenant-house  in  Washington  Street : — 

‘Passing  from  apartment  to  apartment,  until  we  reached  the  upper 
garret,  we  found  every  place  crowded  with  occupants,  one  room,  only 

by  9  feet,  and  a  low  ceiling,  containing  two  adults  and  a  daughter 
of  twelve  years,  and  the  father  working  as  a  shoemaker  in  the  room, 
while  in  the  upper  garret  were  found  a  couple  of  dark  rooms  kept  by 
haggard  crones,  who  nightly  supplied  lodgings  to  twenty  or  thirty 
vagabonds  and  homeless  persons.  This  wretched  hiding-place  of  men, 
women,  and  girls,  who  in  such  places  become  daily  more  vicious  and 
more  wretched,  had  long  been  a  hot-bed  of  typhus,  seven  of  the 
lodgers  having  been  sent  to  the  fever  hospital,  while  permanent  resi¬ 
dents  on  the  lower  floors  had  become  infected  with  the  same  malady 
and  died.’ 

In  the  construction  of  many  modern  tenant-houses,  it 
would  appear,  the  Inspector  states,  ‘  that  hygienic  laws  and 
sanitary  requirements  have  been  estimated  as  of  only  se¬ 
condary  importance,  the  great  problem  being  how  to 
domicile  the  greatest  number  of  families  on  a  given  area. 
And  in  the  practical  solution  of  that  problem,  in  this 
district,  lies  the  great  overshadowing  cause  of  insalubrity, 
before  which  all  others  combined  sink  into  insignificance. 
The  most  marked  feature  of  the  tenant-houses  is  the  small 
size  of  their  apartments,  whereby  ensues  overcrowding 
in  each  family.’  Having  described  a  group  of  tenement- 
houses  which  are  represented  by  the  aid  of  photography, 
and  designated  as  ‘a  perpetual  fever  nest,’  the  report  thus 
proceeds  : — 


224 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


‘And  in  addition,  the  street  throughout  this  whole  neighbourhood, 
presents  habitually  the  vilest  condition  of  filth,  and  reeks  with  most 
offensive  odours.  Typhus  fever  and  measles  were  very  prevalent 
here  in  the  early  part  of  the  summer.  In  my  weekly  reports  of 
“pestilential  diseases  and  insalubrious  quarters,”  I  have  had  frequent 
occasion  to  describe  the  condition  of  families  and  disease  in  the 
premises  that  are  here  photographed.  The  beautiful  work  of  the  artist 
renders  unnecessary  any  further  description  of  these  squalid  and  pesti¬ 
ferous  tenements,  and  their  noisome  fronting  of  dilapidated  and 
overflowing  privies,  and  a  dismal,  narrow,  flooded  court.  That  erup¬ 
tive  fevers,  typhus,  and  physical  decay  may  always  be  seen  here  is  cer¬ 
tainly  not  surprising.’ 

Tlie  worst  effects  upon  the  inmates  of  the  poorest  class 
of  tenant-houses  are  exhibited  not  so  much  in  the  more 
acute  form  of  disease,  as  ‘in  the  pale  and  sickly  counten¬ 
ance  of  their  occupants,  with  lax  fibre  and  general  absence 
of  robust  health  ;  we  see  it  also  in  the  pining  and  wasting 
of  infants,  and  in  the  general  prevalence  of  strumous,  oph¬ 
thalmic,  and  eruptive  disorders.  All  these  appearances 
indicate  -unmistakably  the  want  of  those  great  indispensible 
necessities  of  health — pure  air  and  light.* 

Let  us  follow  Dr.  Pulling,  the  ‘  Inspector  of  the  Fourth 
Sanitary  District,’  in  his  visits  of  inspection,  and,  without 
straining  probability,  assume  that  the  miserable  picture  so 
graphically  drawn  is  that  of  an  Irish  family,  the  victims 
of  the  one  great  and  fatal  mistake  of  the  husband  and  the 
father — that  of  having  remained  in  New  York,  instead  of 
carrying  his  strength  and  his  industry  to  the  place  where 
they  were  most  required,  and  were  sure  to  be  appreciated  : 

‘  Through  a  narrow  alley  we  enter  a  small  courtyard  which  the  lofty 
buildings  in  front  keep  in  almost  perpetual  shade.  Entering  it  from 
the  street  on  a  sunny  day,  the  atmosphere  seems  like  that  of  a  well. 
The  yard  is  filled  with  recently-washed  clothing  suspended  to  dry. 
In  the  centre  of  this  space  are  the  closets  used  by  the  population  of  both 
front  and  rear  houses.  Their  presence  is  quite  as  perceptible  to  the 
smell  as  to  the  sight. 

*  Making  our  way  through  this  enclosure,  and  descending  four  or 
five  steps,  we  find  ourselves  in  the  basement  of  the  rear-building. 
We  enter  a  room  whose  ceiling  is  blackened  with  smoke,  and  its  walls 


AN  INVITING  PICTURE. 


225 


discoloured  with  damp.  In  front,  opening  on  a  narrow  area  covered 
with  green  mould,  two  small  windows,  their  tops  scarcely  level  with  the 
courtyard,  afford  at  noonday  a  twilight  illumination  to  the  apartment. 
Through  their  broken  frames  they  admit  a  damp  air  laden  with  effluvia 
which  constitutes  the  vital  atmosphere  imbibed  by  all  who  are  immured 
in  this  dismal  abode. 

‘  A  door  at  the  back  of  this  room  communicates  with  another  which 
is  entirely  dark,  and  has  but  one  opening.  Both  rooms  together  have 
an  area  of  about  18  feet  square,  and  these  apartments  are  the  home  of 
six  persons.  The  father  of  the  family,  a  day  labourer,  is  absent  ;  the 
mother,  a  wrinkled  crone  at  thirty ,  sits  rocking  in  her  arms  an  infant, 
whose  pasty  and  pallid  features  tell  that  decay  and  death  are  usurping 
the  place  of  health  and  life,  Two  older  children  are  in  the  street, 
which  is  their  only  playground,  and  the  only  place  where  they  can  go 
to  breathe  an  atmosphere  that  is  even  comparatively  pure.  A  fourth 
child,  emaciated  to  a  skeleton,  and  with  that  ghastly  and  unearthly 
look  which  marasmus  impresses  on  its  victims,  has  reared  its  feeble 
frame  on  a  rickety  chair  against  the  window  sill,  and  is  striving  to  get  a 
glimpse  at  the  smiling  heavens  whose  light  is  so  seldom  permitted  to 
gladden  its  longing  eyes.  Its  youth  has  battled  nobly  against  the 
terribly  morbid  and  devitalizing  agents  which  have  depressed  its 
childish  life — the  poisonous  air,  the  darkness,  and  the  damp  ;  but 
the  battle  is  nearly  over,  it  is  easy  to  decide  where  the  victory  will  be.’ 

The  cellar  tenements  of  this  district  are  fearful  abodes 
for  human  beings.  They  were  occupied,  in  1864,  in  1,400 
persons,  and  their  floors  ranged  from  ten  to  thirty  feet 
below  high  water  mark !  ‘  In  the  sub-tidal  basements  nine¬ 

teen  families,  or  110  persons,  live  beneath  the  level  of  the 
sea.5  ‘In  very  many  cases  the  vaults  of  privies  are  situ¬ 
ated  on  the  same  or  a  higher  level,  and  their  contents 
frequently  ooze  through  walls  into  the  occupied  apart¬ 
ments  beside  them.  Fully  one-fourtli  of  these  subterra¬ 
nean  domiciles  are  pervaded  by  a  most  offensive  odour 
from  this  source,  and  rendered  exceedingly  unwholesome  as 
human  habitations.  These  are  the  places  in  which  we  most 
frequently  meet  with  typhoid  fever  and  dysentery  during 
the  summer  months/ 

Matters  are  not  much  better  in  £  the  Sixth  Inspection 
District,’  where  the  tenement  population  is  about  23,000. 


226 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


In  some  of  tlie  cellars  and  basements  water  trickled  down 
the  walls,  the  source  of  which  was  traced  to  the  foulest 
soakage.  One  cannot  be  surprised  to  learn  that  the  nox¬ 
ious  effluvia  always  present  in  these  basements  are  of  a 
sickening  character.  Many  of  these  cellars  are  occupied 
by  two  or  three  families ;  a  number  are  also  occupied  as 
lodging-houses,  accommodating  from  twenty  to  thirty  lodg¬ 
ers  !  What  an  abode  for  those  who,  leaving  home  and 
country,  crossed  the  ocean  in  the  hope  of  bettering  their 
condition  ! 

The  Inspector  of  the  Eleventh  District— Dr.  Brown — 
states  that  nearly  one-fiftli  of  all  the  tenements  are  rear 
buildings,  some  of  them  of  the  lowest  grade.  •  They  are 
generally  contracted  in  size,  shut  out  from  the  sunlight, 
and  commonly  are  obstructions  to  light  and  ventilation  in 
the  front  buildings.  The  interval  between  the  front  and 
rear  house  is  frequently  so  small,  and  sometimes  so  com¬ 
pletely  enclosed  on  all  sides  by  the  adjacent  houses  ‘  as  to 
constitute  a  mere  well-hole.’  Deferring  to  certain  houses 
in  Hammond  and  Washington  Streets,  the  Inspector  des¬ 
cribes  their  inhabited  cellars,  the  ceilings  of  which  are  be¬ 
low  the  level  of  the  street,  ‘inaccessible  to  the  rays  of  the 
sun,  and  always  damp  and  dismal.  Three  of  them  are 
flooded  at  every  rain,  and  require  to  be  bailed  out.  They 
are  let  at  a  somewhat  smaller  rent  than  is  asked  for  apart¬ 
ments  on  the  upper  floor,  and  are  rented  by  those  to  whom 
poverty  leaves  no  choice.  They  are  rarely  vacant .’ 

Under  the  heading  ‘  Kents,’  we  find  the  Inspector  of  the 
Fourth  Sanitary  District  stating  that  ‘in  regular  tenant 
houses  the  rent  of  each  domicile  (generally  consisting  of 
two  rooms — a  ‘  living  room  ’  and  a  bedroom)  at  present 
averages  $9  per  month,  or  $108  the  year.’  The  cellar,  is, 
we  are  informed,  ‘  let  at  a  somewhat  lower  rate  ’  than  the 
average  mentioned. 

From  the  report  of  Dr.  Furman,  the  Inspector  of  the 
Seventeenth  Sanitary  District,  the  following  passage  is  ex¬ 
tracted  : — 


MISERY  AND  SLAVERY  COMBINED. 


227 


‘Most  of  the  larger  tenant-houses  are  in  a  state  of  inuckiness,  and. 
as  a  rule,  overcrowded,  without  ventilation  or  lig'lit.  These  are 
offensive  enough  (and  incapable  to  preserve  a  normal  standard  ol 
health) ;  but  the  crowded  rear  tenant-houses,  completely  cut  off  from 
ventilation  and  perhaps  light,  are  still  worse.  They  abound  in  dark, 
damp,  and  noisome  basements  and  cellars,  converted  into  sleeping 
apartments.  In  these  the  invigorating  and  health-preserving  sun-light 
and  fresh  air  are  never  accessible.’ 

An  illustration  is  given  of  one  of  these  habitations,  the 
‘living  rooms’  of  which  are  nearly  dark,  and  the  dormi¬ 
tories  ‘  dark  and  damp.’  The  report  thus  continues  : — 

‘Here  we  have  low,  damp,  dark,  and  unventilated  bed-rooms,  whose 
inmates  respire  a  murky  air,  and  consort  with  snails,  spiders ,  and  muck¬ 
worms.  These  underground  habitations  are  most  pernicious  in  laying 
the  foundation  for  and  developing  strumous  ophthalmia,  hip-joint, 
and  certain  diseases  of  the  spine,  diseases  of  the  respiratory  organs 
(the  chief  of  which  is  consumption),  rheumatism,  which  in  turn  pro¬ 
duces  organic  disease  of  the  heart.’ 

The  picture  would  not  be  perfect  without  the  follow¬ 
ing 

‘They — the  houses — as  in  many  instances  owned  by  large  capitalists 
by  whom  they  are  farmed  out  to  a  class  of  factors,  who  make  this 
their  especial  business.  These  men  pay  to  the  owner  of  the  property 
a  sum  which  is  considered  a  fair  return  on  the  capital  invested,  and 
rely  for  their  profits  (which  are  often  enormous)  on  the  additional 
amount  which  they  can  extort  from  the  wretched  tenants  whose  house 
frequently  becomes  untenantable  for  want  of  repairs,  which  the  “agent” 
weems  it  his  interest  to  withhold.  These  men-  contrive  to  absorb  most 
of  the  scanty  surplus  which  remains  to  the  tenants  after  paying  for 
their  miserable  food,  shelter,  and  raiment.  They  are,  in  many  in¬ 
stances,  proprietors  of  low  groceries,  liquor  stores,  and  “ policy  shops  ” 
connected  with  such  premises, — the  same  individual  often  being  the 
actual  owner  of  a  large  number.  Many  of  the  wretched  population  are 
held  by  these  men  in  a  state  of  abject  dependence  and  vassalage  little  short 
of  actual  slavery. 

And  this  is  in  the  greatest  city  of  the  Great  Eepublic  of 
the  New  World  !  The  poor  Irishman  who  leaves  his  own 
country  to  escape  from  the  tyranny  of  the  most  grinding 
landlord,  and  becomes  the  slavish  vassal  of  one  of  these 
blood-suckers,  makes  but  a  poor  exchange.  The  ‘  improve- 


228 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


ment  ’  in  his  condition  might  be  fittingly  indicated  by  the 
homely  adage, — c  from  the  frying-pan  into  the  fire.’  The 
rudest  hut  in  the  midst  of  a  forest,  the  loneliest  cabin  on 
the  prairie,  would  be  a  palace  to  one  of  these  abodes. 
Health,  energy,  independence,  self-respect  —  the  hopeful 
family  growing  up  as  strong  as  young  lions,  and  fleet  as 
antelopes — plenty  for  all,  and  a  hearty  welcome  for  the 
stranger  and  the  wayfarer, — this  is  the  country.  What  a 
contrast  is  it  to  the  squalor,  the  debasement,  and  the  sla¬ 
very  of  the  town — as  described  by  a  competent  authority. 

How  intemperance,  the  author  of  so  many  ills  to  man¬ 
kind,  and  in  a  special  degree  to  those  who  live  by  their 
labour,  has  its  origin  in  these  abodes  of  misery,  to  which 
the  working  population  are  condemned  through  poverty 
and  the  want  of  cheap  and  healthful  homes,  is  thus  ac¬ 
counted  for  by  the  Commissioners  of  Health  : — 

*  This  we  know  from  observation,  and  from  the  testimony  of  dis¬ 
pensary  physicians  and  other  visitors  among  the  poor,  that  the  crowded, 
dark,  and  unventilated  homes  of  the  classes  from  which  pauperism 
springs  are  driven  to  habits  of  tippling  by  the  combined  influences  of 
the  vital  depression  and  demoralising  surroundings  of  their  unhealthy 
habitations.  Pertinent  was  the  reply  of  a  drunken  mother,  in  a  dismal 
rear-court,  to  a  sanitary  officer,  who  asked  her  why  she  drank :  “  If  you 
lived  in  this  place,  you  would  ask  for  whisky  instead  of  milk”  ’ 

Dr.  Burrall,  Inspector  for  the  Twelfth  District,  touches 
in  his  report  on  the  same  point  : — 

‘It  may  be  that  the  depressing  causes  existing  in  such  a  neighbour¬ 
hood  prompt  to  the  use  of  some  “oblivious  antidote,”  by  which  for  a 
time  the  rough  edges  of  life  may  be  smoothed  over.  It  may  be,  too, 
that  these  stimulants  excite  a  certain  degree  of  prophylactic  influence, 
but  the  quality  of  liquor  obtained  in  such  places  is  injurious  to  tho 
digestive  organs,  the  brain  becomes  unduly  excited,  and  quarrelling 
or  even  murder  results.’ 

Dr.  Field,  Inspector  for  the  Eighteenth  District,  enters 
fully  into  the  demoralising  influences  and  results  produced 
by  the  low  class  of  tenements  on  those  who  inhabit  them 


INDUCEMENTS  TO  INTEMPERANCE. 


229 


‘Moreover,  it  is  an  accepted  fact  that  to  live  for  a  long  time  deprived 
of  pure  air  and  sunlight,  will  not  only  depress  a  man  physically  and 
mentally,  but  will  actually  demoralise  him.  The  atmosphere  is  precisely 
adapted,  through  its  properties  and  constituents  to  the  wants  of  the 
beings  designed  to  breathe. it. 

‘A  man  gradually  loses  ambition  and  hope  ;  concern  for  the  welfare  of 
his  family,  by  slow  degrees,  loses  its  hold  upon  him.  Loss  of  physical 
vigour  attends  this  corresponding  condition  of  the  mind,  until  at  length 
lassitude  and  depression  of  spirits  and  constant  ennui  get  such  control 
over  him  that  no  power  or  effort  of  the  will  can  shake  them  off.  With 
this  decline  of  energy  and  vigour,  both  of  mind  and  body,  is  set  up  an 
instinctive  yearning  for  something  which  will  give  a  temporary  respite  to 
the  dragging  weariness  of  life.  Hence  we  find  the  children  even,  who  are 
brought  up  without  the  stimulating  influence  of  pure  air  and  sunlight, 
will  learn  to  cry  for  tea  and  coffee  before  they  learn  to  talk  ;  and  they 
will  refuse  the  draught  unless  it  be  strong.  One  would  hardly  credit 
unless  he  has  visited  considerably  among  the  tenant-house  population, 
how  general  this  habit  is  among  the  youngest  children.  As  they  grow 
older,  they  acquire  the  appetite  of  their  parents  for  alcoholic  stimulants  ;  and 
we  need  not  go  further  to  account  for  any  extreme  of  immorality  and 
want/ 

Nor  are  abundant  opportunities  wanting  for  the  indul¬ 
gence  of  this  fatal  passion.  Of  the  twenty-nine  Inspectors 
who  report  on  the  sanitary  condition  of  New  York,  there 
is  not  one  who  does  not  deplore  the  existence  of  the  lowest 
class  of  ‘  groggeries  *  in  the  midst  of  the  very  poorest  dis¬ 
trict.  One  statement  as  to  this  fact  will  suffice.  Dr. 
Oscar  G.  Smith,  reporting  on  the  Ninth  District,  says — - 
‘  The  number  of  dram-shops  to  be  met  in  those  localities 
where  a  tenant-house  class  reside,  is  surprising.’  Dr.  Ed¬ 
ward  W.  Derby,  in  his  report  on  the  Fourteenth  District, 
gives  a  painful  picture  of  the  prevalence  of  this  unhappy 
vice  : — 


‘  The  low  groggeries  and  groceries,  in  all  of  which  liquors  are  sold, 
are  constantly  thronged,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  with  members  of  both 
sexes,  youth  and  old  age  vicing  with  each  other  as  to  their  capabilities 
of  drinking,  enriching  the  proprietors  of  these  places,  spending  their 
last  penny  in  gratifying  their  morbidly-debased  appetite,  rather  than 
purchasing  the  necessaries  of  life  for  their  families,  and  then  issuing 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


2E0 

forth  or  being  thrust  out  upon  the  streets  in  various  stages  of  intoxica¬ 
tion.  half  crazed  with  the  vile  and  poisonous  liquor  they  have  swallowed, 
fit  subjects  for  the  committing  of  the  many  crimes  which  are  daily  chroni¬ 
cled  in  our  papers.  Such  are  the  places  which  stare  you  in  the  face  at 
every  step,  a  disgrace  to  the  city,  and  a  prolific  source  of  corruption  to 
the  morals  of  the  surrounding  inhabitants.’ 

*  Poison,’  £  vile  poison,’  ‘  noxious  and  deleterious  com¬ 
pounds,’  are  tlie  terms  generally  applied  to  the  description 
of  liquor  for  which  so  many  sacrifice  their  means,  their 
health,  and  the  happiness  of  their  families. 

With  such  a  state  of  things — affecting  at  least  a  very 
large  portion  of  the  tenement  population  of  New  York — 
it  cannot  be  a  matter  of  surprise  that  the  destruction  of 
infant  life  in  that  city  is  something  prodigious.  The 
total  number  of  deaths  ‘  in  the  first  year  of  life,’  for  the 
nine  months  ending  the  30th  of  September,  1806,  was 
6,258 !  This  is  a  Massacre  of  the  Innocents  'frith  a  ven¬ 
geance.  The  Commissioners  of  the  Board  of  Health 
remark  : — 

‘The  rate  of  mortality  in  children  under  five  years  of  age  in  New 
York  is  greater  than  in  any  city  with  which  this  Board  has  corres¬ 
pondence,  and  the  cause  of  this  excess  will  best  be  sought  in  the 
miserable  housing  and  habits  of  the  labouring  classes,  and  in  the 
multiplied  sources  of  foul  air  in  our  two  cities.  .  .  .  From  various 

data  now  in  hand,  the  conclusion  is  warranted,  that  death  has  in  each 
of  the  past  two  years  taken  nearly  one-third  of  the  total  number  before 
the  first  birthday.'’ 

Dr.  Derby  takes  rather  a  philosophical  view  of  this 
tremendous  death  rate,  and  is  inclined  to  regard  it  as  a  pro¬ 
vidential  counterpoise  to  the  fecundity  of  the  poor,  which, 
he  states,  has  long  been  a  matter  of  remark.  He  adds  : — 

‘  The  number  of  diseases  which  menace  and  destroy  infantile  existence 
seems  almost  a  providential  interference  to  prevent  an  excess  of  popula¬ 
tion  over  and  above  that  which  the  means  of  the  parents  could  possibly 
support.  Nor,  when  we  reflect  upon  the  condition  in  which  these  unfor¬ 
tunate  children  are  found  to  exist,  and  the  many  circumstances,  moral 
and  hygienic,  by  which  they  are  surrounded,  do  we  wonder  less  at  the 
amount  of  sickness  and  mortality  among  them,  than  that  it  is  not  great¬ 
er  ;  less  that  they  die  than  they  survive.’ 


MASSACRE  OF  TIIE  INNOCENTS. 


231 


Dr.  Monnell  thus  concludes  his  remarks  on  the  destruc¬ 
tion  of  life  caused  by  the  miserable  dwellings  of  his  dis¬ 
trict  : — 

*  In  the  deadly  atmosphere  of  some  low  basement,  or  close  un- 
ventilated  bedroom,  or  in  the  wretched  squalor  of'  some  dilapidated 
garret,  those  little  ones  so  numerously  born  amongst  this  class  first 
draw  their  breath,  and  in  an  atmosphere  surcharged  with  poison  they 
battle  for  life  ;  but  in  the  unequal  strife  very  few  survive,  and  thus  are 
yearly  sacrificed  whole  hecatombs  of  living  souls.  They  fall  victims  not 
of  necessity,  nor  of  the  decrees  of  inevitable  Fate,  but  of  ignorance 
and  avarice,  and  are  lost  to  parents  and  friends,  to  society,  and  lo 
usefulness  in  the  world.’ 

These  poor  immature  blossoms,  that  perish  so  miserably 
in  the  foul  air  of  an  overcrowded  city,  how  they  would 
have  thriven  in  the  pure  atmosphere  of  the  country ! 
where  the  young  cheek,  c  pasty  and  pallid  ’  in  damp  and 
dismal  cellar,  or  the  fusty  sleeping-hole  of  the  tenement 
house,  would  bloom  with  health,  and  the  eye,  so  dull  and 
languid  in  the  haunts  of  misery  or  vice,  would  sparkle 
into  life  and  hope.  In  the  country,  throughout  America, 
children  are,  next  to  his  own  industry  and  health,  the  best 
capital  of  the  parent.  What  they  are  under  the  circum¬ 
stances  described  in  the  passages  just  quoted,  the  reader 
may  easily  imagine. 

My  own  previously  formed  convictions,  which  for  years 
had  been  strong  in  favour  of  the  Irish  selecting  the  right 
place  for  their  special  industry,  were,  if  possible,  confirmed 
by  a  visit  to  tenement  houses  of  different  classes.  I  re¬ 
member  one  in  particular,  occupied  principally  by  Irish. 
It  presented  none  of  the  revolting  features  common  to 
the  dens  already  described.  There  was  no  squalor,  no 
dilapidation ;  the  place  appeared  to  be  in  fair  order.  But 
the  tenants  were  not  the  class  of  people  who  should  have 
remained  in  New  York.  In  Ireland  they  belonged  to  the 
rural  population  ;  and  when  I  lifted  the  latch  and  entered 
an  apartment,  it  was  just  as  if  I  had  walked  some  miles 
into  the  country  at  home,  and  entered  the  cabin  of  the 


232 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


labourer,  or  the  cottage  of  the  farmer ;  for  in  the  accent  a  nd 
manner  of  the  inmates  there  was  no  difference  whatever. 
They  were  all  racy  of  the  soil.  You  could  not  visit  any 
house  inhabited  by  a  number  of  Irish  in  which  instances 
of  the  beautiful  charity  by  which  the  race  are  distinguished 
would  not  be  displayed.  Here,  for  instance,  was  a  great 
strong  fellow,  not  long  from  the  old  country,  and  not  able 
to  get  work,  listlessly  leaning  against  the  door-post  of  a 
lower  apartment,  the  tenants  of  which  had  given  ‘the  poor 
boy’  a  hearty  welcome,  and  a  ‘shake-down,’  and  ‘a  bit 
and  sup  ;  ’  though  they  themselves  had  a  hard  struggle  to 
keep  want  from  their  humble  hearth.  There  was  in 
another  room  a  mother,  with  her  own  young  brood,  yet 
who  found  a  corner  in  her  woman’s  heart  for  the  orphan 
child  of  a  neighbour  that  died  some  months  before. 

In  one  of  the  upper  ‘  domiciles  ’  there  were  then  six 
persons,  a  mother,  four  young  children,  and  a  female 
relative,  who  was  engaged  in  washing.  The  husband,  the 
seventh  inmate,  a  labouring  man,  was  out  at  work.  The 
principal  apartment  measured  about  9  feet  by  12  ;  the 
dimensions  of  the  other,  the  bedroom,  allowing  little  more 
than  the  space  occupied  by  a  fair-sized  four-post  bedstead. 
A  stove,  necessary  for  the  season,  occupied  no  small 
portion  of  the  chief  apartment.  There  was  no  actual  want 
of  essential  articles  of  furniture,  such  as  a  table  and 
chairs  ;  and  the  walls  were  not  without  one  or  two  pious 
and  patriotic  pictures,  Catholic  and  Irish.  The  children 
were  tolerably  clean,  but  pale  and  sickly  ;  and  a  poor 
little  fellow,  of  wonderfully  bright  countenance,  hopped 
about  on  one  leg,  from  an  injury  which,  owing  to  neglect, 
was  likely  to  cripple  him  for  life.  For  this  house  accom¬ 
modation,  for  this  confined  space,  in  which  seven  human 
beings  were  pent  up  for  so  many  hours  together,  there  was 
paid  $7  a  month,  or  $84  a  year.  Work  or  no  work — and 
it  was  not  unfrequently  the  latter— this  rent  should  of 
necessity  be  met.  In  English  money  even  at  the  present 


IN  THE  WRONG  PLACE. 


233 


rate  of  3s.  3 </.  the  dollar  in  ‘greenbacks/  a  year’s  rent 
would  come  to  13/.  13s.;  as  much  as  would  enable  the 
tenant  of  these  apartments  to  purchase  the  fee-simple  of 
more  than  50  acres  of  good  land  in  a  Western  State. 
The  mother  of  the  children  was  quiet,  well-mannered,  and 
respectable  in  appearance ;  and  though  the  freshness  had 
long  since  faded  from  her  face,  she  retained  the  traces  of 
a  kind  of  grave  and  pensive  beauty.  She  was  the  daughter 
of  a  decent  farmer  in  West  Carbery,  county  Cork,  and  her 
husband,  now  a  day  labourer  in  New  York,  had  also  held 
some  land  in  the  same  locality.  They  had  come  to 
America  £  to  better  themselves,’ — ‘  to  be  more  independent 
than  they  were  at  home  ;  ’  and  here  they  were,  stuffed  into 
a  little  room  in  a  tenement-house,  with  four  young  helpless 
children  depending  on  them  for  support,  their  only  means 
consisting  of  the  earnings  of  the  father  of  the  family — 
about  $9  a  week ;  out  of  which  everything  had  to  be  pro¬ 
vided,  and  at  prices  so  excessive  as  to  leave  but  a  small 
balance  on  the  Saturday  night.  A  month’s  idleness,  or  a 
fortnight’s  sickness,  and  what  misery !  Necessaries  to  be 
had  on  credit,  at  a  rate  equal  to  the  vendor’s  supposed 
risk  ;  and  to  be  paid  for  on  a  future  day,  in  addition  to 
the  never  ceasing  outlay  for  the  daily  wants  of  a  young 
and  growing  family.  Here  then  were  intelligence,  prac¬ 
tical  knowledge,  special  aptitude  for  a  country  life,  madly 
flung  away ;  and  the  all  but  certainty  of  a  grand  future, 
that  is,  a  future  of  comfort  and  independence,  sacrificed 
for  the  precarious  employment  of  a  day-labourer  in  New 
York !  A  few  years  of  hopeful  toil,  not  more  trying,  but 
ess  trying  to  the  constitution,  than  that  which  he  went 
through  every  day,  would  have  enabled  the  tenant  of  that 
stuffy  apartment  in  a  desperately  overcrowded  city  to 
provide  his  wife  and  children  with  a  happy,  healthful, 
prosperous  home,  which  would  have  been  theirs  for  ever, 
and  from  which  neither  factor,  nor  agent,  nor  groggery 
owner  could  have  driven  them.  But,  alas  for  them  and 


234 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


for  him !  the  ready  employment  and  its  apparently  large 
reward,  and  the  attractions  of  a  city,  were  more  than  a 
match  for  his  good  sense  ;  and  now,  like  so  many  of  his 
countrymen,  he  is  as  thoroughly  out  of  his  legitimate 
sphere  as  man  can  possibly  be.  I  regretted  I  could  not  see 
the  husband  ;  but  I  did,  as  a  matter  of  conscientious  duty, 
endeavour  to  make  the  wife  and  mother  comprehend  the 
magnitude  of  the  mistake  which  had  been  made,  and  urged 
her  to  counsel  him  to  free  himself  at  the  first  oppor¬ 
tunity  from  a  position  -for  which  he  was  not  suited,  and 
which  was  not  suited  for  him. 

I  saw  much  in  other  tenement  houses — whether  houses 
specially  built  for  the  purpose,  or  houses  adapted  to  that 
purpose — to  justify  the  accuracy  of  the  descriptions  given 
in  the  reports  from  which  I  have  quoted  ;  but  though  I 
witnessed  much  misery  and  squalor,  and  in  a  few  instances 
glanced  into  places  scarcely  fit  for  the  shelter  of  animals, 
I  must  confess  to  have  been  more  impressed  by  the  sad 
blunder  of  these  young  people — who  would  have  made 
such  splendid  settlers  in  some  fertile  region,  whether  of 
Canada  or  the  States — than  with  all  I  saw  or  heard  during 
the  day. 

Even  where  there  is  sobriety,  industry,  good  conduct, 
constant  employment,  the  city  is  not  the  place  for  the 
man  bred  in  the  country,  and  acquainted  from  his  boyhood 
only  with  country  pursuits,  whether  as  farmer  or  farm 
labourer.  The  country  wants  him,  clamours  for  him, 
welcomes  him,  bids  him  prosper,  and  offers  him  the  means 
of  doing  so.  But  suppose  there  is  not  industry,  sobriety, 
good  conduct,  or  constant  employment,  is  it  necessary  to 
depict  the  consequences  ?  The  once  simple  peasant  is  soon 
smirched  by  the  foulness  of  such  city  corruption  as  too 
frequently  surrounds  him  or  lies  in  his  daily  path  ;  and  the 
dram  shop,  so  ruinously  convenient  to  the  dwellings  of 
the  toiling  poor,  finds  him  one  of  its  best  customers.  If 
his  children  escape  the  perils  of  infancy,  and  grow  up 


TOWN  AND  COUNTRY. 


235 


about  him,  what  is  their  training,  what  their  career,  what 
their  fate  ?  Possibly  they  are  saved  through  some  merciful 
interposition  ;  perhaps  by  the  tears  and  prayers  of  a  good 
mother,  perhaps  by  the  example  of  a  sister  who  has  caught 
the  mother’s  spirit.  Possibly  they  grow  up  in  industry 
and  virtue,  but  the  odds  are  fearfully  against  them  ;  and 
it  is  not  at  all  improbable  that  the  quick-witted  offspring 
of  the  father  who  becomes  intemperate  and  demoralised, 
fall  into  the  class  known  as  the  Arabs  of  the  Street,  those 
victims  of  parental  neglect  or  unprovided  orphanage,  that, 
as  they  arrive  at  manhood,  mature  into  a  still  more  danger¬ 
ous  class — the  roughs  and  rowdies  of  the  city,  who  are 
ready  for  every  kind  of  mischief,  and  to  whom  excitement, 
no  matter  at  whatever  expense  it  may  be  purchased,  be¬ 
comes  the  first  necessity  of  their  existence. 

Let  it  not  be  supposed  that,  in  my  earnest  desire  to 
direct  the  practical  attention  of  my  countrymen,  at  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic,  to  an  evil  of  universallv  admitted 
magnitude,  I  desire  to  exaggerate  in  the  least.  From  the 
very  nature  of  things,  the  great  cities  of  America — and  in 
a  special  degree  New  York — must  be  the  refuge  of  the 
unfortunate,  the  home  of  the  helpless — the  hiding-place  of 
the  broken-down,  even  of  the  criminal  ;  and  these,  while 
crowding  the  dwelling-places  of  the  poor,  and  straining 
the  resources  and  preying  on  the  charity  of  their  com¬ 
munities,  multiply  their  existing  evils,  and  add  to  their 
vices.  Still,  in  spite  of  the  dangers  and  temptations  by 
which  they  are  perpetually  surrounded — dangers  and  temp¬ 
tations  springing  even  from  the  very  freedom  of  republican 
institutions  no  less  than  from  the  generous  social  habits 
of  the  American  people — there  are  thousands,  hundreds 
of  thousands,  of  Irisli-born  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
residing  in  New  York  and  in  the  other  great  cities  of  the 
Union,  who  are  in  every  respect  the  equals  of  the  best  of 
American  population  —  honourable  and  upright  in  their 
dealings  ;  industrious,  energetic,  and  enterprising  in  busi- 


236 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


ness  ;  intelligent  and  quick  of  capacity  ;  progressive  and 
go-ahead  ;  and  as  loyally  devoted  to  the  institutions  of 
tlieir  adopted  country  as  if  they  had  been  born  under  its 
flag.  Nevertheless,  I  repeat  the  assertion,  justified  by 
innumerable  authorities — authorities  beyond  the  faintest 
shadow  of  suspicion — that  the  city  is  not  the  right  place 
for  the  Irish  peasant,  and  that  it  is  the  worst  place  which 
he  could  select  as  his  home. 

The  Irish  peasant,  who  quits  his  native  country  for  En¬ 
gland  or  Scotland,  may  be  excused  for  hiding  himself  in 
any  of  its  great  towns,  manufacturing  or  commercial,  in¬ 
land  or  seaport  ;  for  not  only  may  he  find  employment  for 
himself,  and  have  some  chance  for  his  young  people  in 
them,  but  there  is  no  opportunity  of  his  much  bettering 
his  condition  by  going  into  the  country,  But  there  is  no 
excuse  whatever  for  his  remaining  in  the  cities  of  America, 
crowding  and  blocking  them  up,  when  there  are  at  this 
hour  as  many  opportunities  for  his  getting  on  in  the 
country — that  is,  making  a  home  and  independence  for 
himself  and  his  children — as  there  were  for  the  millions 
of  all  nationalities  who  went  before  him,  and  who  now 
constitute  the  strength  and  glory  of  the  Republic.  The 
Irish  peasant  who  goes  to  England  or  Scotland  has  little 
chance  of  being  accepted  even  as  the  tenant  of  a  farm  in 
either  of  those  countries — a  remote  one,  indeed,  of  ever  be¬ 
coming  a  proprietor  of  English  or  Scottish  soil ;  but  the 
most  miserable  cottier  of  Connemara  or  the  worst-paid 
day-labourer  of  Cork  or  Tipperary,  who  has  the  good 
sense  to  push  on  from  the  American  seaboard  towards 
those  vast  regions  of  virgin  land  that  woo  the  hardy  vigour 
of  the  pioneer,  may  in  the  course  of  a  few  years  possess 
hundreds  of  acres  of  real  estate  by  a  more  glorious  title 
than  has  been  too  often  acquired  in  the  old  countries  of 
Europe,  his  own  included — by  the  right  of  patient  industry, 
blessed  toil,  and  sanctifying  privation. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


The  Land  the  great  Resource  for  the  Emigrant — Cases  in  Point— 

An  Irishman  socially  redeemed — More  Instances  of  Success  on 
the  Land — An  Irish  Public  Opinion  wanted — Irish  Settlements 
in  Minnesota  and  Illinois — The  Public  Lands  of  America — The 
Coal  and  Iron  of  America — Down  South — A  Kildare  Man  in  the 
South — Tipperary  Men  in  the  South — The  Climate  of  the  South — 
California  an  Illustration  of  the  true  Policy. 

EVERY  mile  I  travelled,  every  man  I  met,  every  answer  I 
i  received,  tended  the  more  to  convince  me  that  the  land 
was  the  grand  resource  for  the  Irish  emigrant,  as  well  as 
the  safest  and  surest  means  of  his  advancement.  It  mat¬ 
tered  not  whether  it  were  Canada  or  the  States,  it  was 
equally  the  same;  and,  save  industry,  energy,  and  strength, 
little  was  necessary  to  enable  the  humble  man  to  make  a 
home  for  himself  and  his  children. 

Walking  one  day  with  a  friend  in  a  city  of  Upper 
Canada,  I  was  attracted  by  the  gentlemanly  air  and  man¬ 
ner  of  a  young  man  whom  my  companion  saluted;  and  on 
my  asking  who  he  was,  and  remarking  that  he  had  the 
appearance  of  a  gentleman,  my  friend  replied,  ‘Yes,  he  is 
a  nice  fellow,  thoroughly  educated  and  accomplished,  and 
a  smart  man  in  his  profession,  too.  He,  sir,  is  the  son 
of  an  Irishman — an  Irish  labourer — who  came  out  here 
without  a  penny  in  the  world,  and  yet  who  died  a  rich 
man,  after  bringing  up  his  children  as  well  as  the  first 
gentleman  in  the  land.  He  was  a  labourer  on  the  canal ; 
and  instead  of  doing  what  too  many  cf  our  people  are  so 
fond  of  doing — stopping  in  the  town — he  contrived  to  buy 
a  bit  of  land,  which  he  cleared  from  time  to  time,  taking 
an  occasional  job  to  procure  provision  for  the  winter;  and 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


2:58 

so  lie  got  on,  adding  to  his  property  year  after  year,  until 
you  see  the  result  in  his  son,  who  is  now  a  rising  profes¬ 
sional  man,  and  who  takes  his  place  among  the  aristocratic 
classes.  Do,  in  God's  name  !  advise  your  countrymen  to  stick 
to  the  land — what  they  know  most  about' 

c  Ah !  sir,’  said  an  Irishman,  who  had  been  many  years 
in  the  States,  and  whom  I  met  in  a  great  central  city,  ‘I 
made  a  sad  mistake  when  I  came  out  here  first.  I  am 
from  the  west  of  the  county  Cork,  and  I  was  engaged 
in  farming  before  I  left  Ireland;  it  was  my  business.  But 
I  don’t  know  how  it  was,  I  allowed  myself  to  stay  in  the 
town,  and  the  time  passed,  and  then  it  was  too  late,  and  I 
hadn’t  the  heart  to  make  a  new  effort.  I  am  sorry  for 
it  now.  Thank  God,  I  am  able  to  live,  after  educating 
my  family,  and  doing  for  them;  but  if  I  went,  as  others 
did,  to  the  country,  and  took  a  farm,  and  stuck  to  the 
business  I  knew  best,  I’d  be  an  independent  man  now  in 
my  old  age.  It  was  a  great  mistake,  sir,  and  the  more  I 
think  of  it,  the  more  I  regret  it.  My  heart  sinks  in  me  at 
times  when  I  think  of  what  I  might  be  this  day,  if  I  had 
only  the  sense  to  do  the  right  thing  at  the  right  time.’ 

Spending  a  Sunday  not  far  from  the  Falls  of  Niagara,  I 
was  speaking  with  a  number  of  respectable  Irishmen  who 
had  been  many  years  from  Ireland,  and  to  whom  the  cir¬ 
cumstances  of  their  countrymen  in  the  surrounding  districts 
were  thoroughly  known.  I  turned  the  conversation  in  the 
direction  most  interesting  to  me — the  position  of  the  Irish, 
and  the  manner  in  which  they  had  got  on.  The  subject 
was  one  which  excited  the  sympathies  and  aroused  the 
recollections  of  my  new  acquaintances,  who  detailed  as 
many  instances  of  successful  thrift  and  patient  industry 
as  would  fill  several  pages. 

Two  Irishmen  were  working  as  helpers  in  a  blacksmith’s 
shop  at  Niagara  Bocks,  in  1844,  and  having  saved  some 
money,  they  each  purchased  100  acres  of  land,  at  a  dollar 
an  acre.  One  in  particular,  after  bringing  his  family  with 


CASES  IN  POINT. 


231) 


him  to  their  new  home,  and  purchasing*  an  axe,  had  but 
three-quarters  of  a  dollar  in  his  possession.  These  men 
divided  their  time  between  working*  for  themselves  and 
others ;  at  one  time  chopping*  away  with  the  ever-busy 
axe,  at  another  hiring  their  labour  to  the  neighbouring 
settlers,  who  were  anxious  to  obtain  their  services.  In  the 
summer  months  they  earned  as  much  as  enabled  them  to 
live  during  the  winter,  wThen  they  were  hard  at  work  at 
home,  clearing  and  fencing  ;  and  when  they  had  cropped 
their  own  land  they  went  out  to  work  again.  At  the  time 
of  which  their  story  was  thus  told,  they  were  each  in  the 
possession  of  200  acres  of  cleared  land,  with  horses,  cattle, 
good  houses,  and  every  comfort  that  reasonable  men  could 
desire.  It  may  be  curious  to  speculate  what  would  have 
been  their  destiny,  had  they  continued  at  the  drudgery 
from  which  they  emancipated  themselves  by  their  own 
energy. 

These  were  individual  instances,  casually  mentioned, 
and  only  remarkable  from  the  fact  of  the  two  men  having 
mutually  agreed  to  do  the  same  thing  ;  but  there  were 
numbers  of  other  cases  of  equally  successful  industry. 
There  was,  for  instance,  a  labourer  who  left  work  on  a 
canal  for  a  contractor,  for  work  on  the  land  for  himself  ; 
and  he  also  was  the  proprietor  of  200  acres  of  fee  simple 
estate,  having  given  to  his  children — both  of  whom  were 
members  of  learned  professions — a  first-class  education. 
In  fact,  there  were  as  manv  as  a  hundred  Irish  families  in 
the  surrounding  district,  who,  in  the  opinion  of  the  ex¬ 
perienced  gentleman  to  wdiom  they  were  well  known,  had 
not  brought  with  them  altogether  500/.,  and  yet  who  too 
occupied  good  farms  of  their  own  creation,  then  their  own 
property,  and  were  looked  upon  as  otherwise  independent 
in  their  means. 

One  of  the  most  experienced  men  in  Canada,  who  has 
been  long  cornected  with  emigration,  thus  gives  his  opinion 
as  to  the  best  mode  by  which  an  emigrant  who  is  resolved 


210 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


on  turning  liis  attention  to  agriculture,  and  who  possesses 
no  other  capital  than  what  he  has  received  from  Provi¬ 
dence,  can  get  on  in  the  new  world 

£  One  or  two  years’  service  with  a  farmer,  particularly 
one  who  has  himself  earned  his  competency  and  comforts 
through  trials  and  from  a  hard  beginning,  should  be 
deemed  an  indispensable  preparation  for  the  settler  before 
undertaking  the  clearing  up  of  land  on  his  own  account. 
With  that  knowdedge,  he  could  obtain  through  the  year,  in 
the  favourable  months,  enough  of  cash  to  buy  provisions 
and  necessaries  for  his  family  ;  and  in  the  winter  and  early 
spring  months,  before  hired  help  wTould  be  required,  he 
could  work  to  much  real  advantage  for  himself.’  What 
applies  to  Canada  applies  equally  well  to  the  same  work 
and  the  same  circumstances  in  the  States. 

An  Irishman,  observing  the  marked  difference  in  the 
circumstance  and  position  of  the  same  class  of  his  country¬ 
men  in  America  in  towm  and  country,  might  be  excused 
for  supposing  there  was  something  specially  sacred  in  the 
cultivation  of  the  soil — in  man  toiling  in  the  sweat  of  his 
brow  to  raise  from  the  fruitful  bosom  of  the  Great  Mother 
food  for  the  sustenance  of  the  human  family.  Whether 
this  be  a  fanciful  notion  or  not,  it  is  certain  that,  in  a 
moral  point  of  view,  agricultural  occupations  not  only 
preserve  the  simplicity  and  even  purity  of  life  so  usually 
to  be  found  in  the  rural  districts  of  almost  every  country, 
but  even  restore  to  primitive  tastes  and  regularity  of  life 
those  wdio  return  to  them  as  a  change.  The  easy-going 
haunter  of  the  tavern  and  the  grog-shop  in  the  town 
becomes  a  steady  and  abstemious  man  when  on  his  farm  ; 
and  even  the  loose  purposeless  idler  of  the  city  hardens 
into  unwonted  energy  when  he  exchanges  its  enervating 
atmosphere  for  the  bracing  air  and  wholesome  pursuits 
of  the  country.  I  have  had  many  proofs  that  this  is  so  in 
America  ;  but  one  case,  though  presenting  no  remarkable 
features,  particularly  impressed  me  at  the  time. 


AN  IRISHMAN  SOCIALLY  REDEEMED. 


24i 


1  was  stopping  with  a  genial  countryman  in  a  thriving 
town  in  the  State  of  Illinois,  which  was  surrounded  by  a 
rich  farming  country,  ’  the  land  mostly  prairie.  My  host 
was  one  of  the  most  prosperous  men  in  the  town  or  district, 
and  enjoyod  the  highest  character  for  energy,  probity,  and 
benevolence.  Like  most  Irishmen  in  the  same  locality, 
he  was  the  sole  architect  of  his  own  fortunes.  In  his 
intelligent  company  I  visited  several  farms  owned  by  our 
countryman,  and  situate  from  within  five  to  ten  miles  of 
the  town.  ‘Now,’  said  my  companion,  as  his  stout  horses 
struggled  through  the  heavy  soil  of  the  road,  ‘  I  will  show 
you  one  of  the  best  farms  hereabouts ;  and  there  is  not 
a  better  or  a  steadier  man  in  the  whole  country  than  its 
owner.  He  is  doing  well,  too,  and  has  brought  up  his 
children  nicely,  though  he  had  little  enough  when  he  com¬ 
menced,  as  I  could  tell.  Here  we  are  at  the  gate,  and, 
sure  enough,  there  is  himself  in  the  midst  of  his  boys  and 
girls.’  The  farm,  the  house,  the  barns,  stable  and  out- 
offices — all  fully  justified  the  description  given  of  them  ; 
and  the  owner,  whom  we  found  hard  at  work,  affording  an 
example  of  industry  to  his  young  people,  was  in  keeping 
with  everything  around  him, — respectable  and  substantial. 
1 1  is  not  necessary  to  dwell  on  the  cordiality  of  his  reception, 
or  to  tell  of  his  mortification  when  he  found  that  his 
hospitable  offers  of  bed  and  board  could  not  be  accepted 
1  >y  his  visitors :  with  an  Irishman,  hospitality  is  almost  a 
matter  of  course,  and  no  one  is  more  rejoiced  than  the 
Irish- American  to  welcome  one  who  is  ‘fresh  from  the 
dear  old  country.’  During  our  drive  home  my  friend 
assured  me  there  was  not  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  for 
a  long  way  round,  a  man  more  respected  or  more  generally 
looked  up  to  than  the  Irishman  we  had  just  quitted. 
‘His  opinion,’  he  added,  ‘is  asked,  and  taken  moreover, 
upon  many  important  questions ;  and  when  disputes  arise 
about  various  things,  they  are  frequently  referred  to  him, 
and  he  settles  them.’ 


11 


242 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA 


Tlie  next  morning  I  had  a  long  and  interesting  con¬ 
versation  with  an  American  gentleman  largely  connect¬ 
ed  with  property  in  the  locality.  The  conversation 
happening  to  turn  upon  the  point  respecting  which  I  was 
ever  on  the  look-out,  if  not  for  information,  at  least  for 
confirmation  of  my  own  conviction, — that  the  right  place 
for  the  Irish  peasant  was  the  land, — the  American  said : 
‘It  has  often  surprised  me  how  it  is  that  an  essentially 
agricultural  people  like  the  Irish  will  not  invariably  turn 
to  the  same  pursuit  in  this  country,  where  they  can  have 
all  they  desire — land  cheap  and  abundant,  with  an  un¬ 
disputed  title,  and  no  one  to  trouble  or  disturb  them. 
However,  we  have  a  good  many  of  your  countrymen  em¬ 
ployed  in  what  I  regard  as  their  legitimate  and  natural 
avocation,  and  I  am  glad  to  tell  you  they  are  all  doing  well. 
I  know  Irishmen  who  have  been  doing  nothing,  or  worse 
than  nothing,  in  the  town,  and  who  became  altogether  dif¬ 
ferent  men  when  they  went  into  the  country.  I  remember 
one  of  them  ’ — and  he  mentioned  the  name  of  the  well- 
known  farmer  I  had  visited  the  day  before — ‘and  so  long 
as  he  remained  in  the  town  he  was  doing  very  little  good ; 
in  fact,  he  was  falling  into  vicious  habits,  and  was  losing 
himself  day  by  day.  Fortunately  for  himself,  lie  had  the 
good  sense  to  see  that  that  kind  of  thing  wouldn’t  do  much 
longer,  and  so  he  resolved  to  change  his  mode  of  life.  He 
left  the  town — cut  it  altogether — shook  its  dust  from  his 
sandals ;  he  got  a  small  bit  of  land,  worked  at  it  like  a  man. 
— I  know  how  hard  he  worked, — and  soon  increased  his 
farm,  until,  ere  very  long,  it  became  a  large  one.  And 
not  long  since  he  purchased  a  considerable  property  in 
addition ;  and,  what  is  more,  he  has  paid  nearly  every 
dollar  of  the  purchase-money.  I  was  asked  by  a  gentleman 
of  this  place  whether  this  property  was  sold,  and  I  said  it 
was — that  Mr.  So  and  So  had  bought  it.  “  What !  ”  said 
he,  “  did  you  trust  him  ?  Why,  when  I  remember  him,  he 
was  an  idle  do-nothing  loafer,  whom  nobody  would  trust 
with  the  price  of  a  bushel  of  apples.  I  am  amazed  at  your 


MORE  INSTANCES  OF  SUCCESS  ON  THE  LAND. 


243 


having  any  business  dealings,  with  a  person  of  his  class.” 
“My  dear  sir,”  I  said,  “you  are  altogether  mistaken  in  the 
character  of  the  man :  he  may  have  been  what  you  say 
he  was  when  you  knew  him — that  was  many  years  ago  ; 
but  I  tell  you  there  is  not  a  more  worthy  or  respectable 
man  in  the  country  than  he  is.  And  not  only  have  I  sold 
the  property  to  him,  but  I  got  half  the  purchase-money 
the  day  of  the  sale,  and  there  is  little  left  to  pay,  and 
that  little  I  can  have  at  any  moment — to-morrow,  if  I 
please.”  “Well,”  said  the  gentleman,  “I  am  glad  to  hear 
it ;  I  spoke  from  my  remembrance  when  I  used  to  see 
him  in  the  town,  and  I  knew  him  to  be  rather  a  loo^e  fish, 
and  generally  in  some  kind  of  row  or  other.  Though 
I  can’t  have  the  property,  I  rejoice  it  is  in  good  hands.” 
Now,  sir,  you  see  how  quitting  the  town  and  going  on  the 
land  has  saved  him,  as  it  has  many  other  Irishmen,  to  my 
personal  knowledge.’ 

It  may  be  mentioned  that  the  Irishman  who  was  the 
subject  of  this  conversation,  found  in  his  young  and 
growing  family  one  of  the  surest  sources  of  his  prosperity. 
They  sprang  up  about  him,  strong  and  vigorous  as  oaks, 
accustomed  to  out-door  work,  which  imparted  health  alike 
to  mind  and  body.  Nor  did  he  neglect  their  education 
— it  must  be  a  worthless  Irish  father  who  will  do  so  ;  and 
in  their  industry,  intelligence,  and  vigorous  health,  to 
say  nothing  of  his  own  respectability  and  the  quiet  hap¬ 
piness  of  his  wife,  who  had  her  troubles  in  the  outset— he 
finds  the  best  reward  of  his  moral  courage  and  perseverance. 
He  might  have  remained  all  his  life  a  mere  drudge  in  the 
town  ;  now  he  is  the  absolute  owner  of  500  acres  of  land, 
and  is  the  founder  of  a  prosperous  family. 

From  the  following  passage  of  a  letter  received  from  a 
dignitary  of  the  Catholic  Church,  himself  an  Irishman, 
who  anxiously  desires  to  see  his  countrymen  in  America 
devote  themselves  to  a  congenial  pursuit,  it  will  be  seen 
how  lack  of  mere  money-capital  is  no  insuperable  bar  to 


2J4 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


advancement,  so  long  as  there  is  land  to  occupy,  and  there 
are  men  and  women  with  strength  and  intelligence  to 
cultivate  it.  The  writer  goes  on  to  say  : — 

•Once,  in  visiting  the  diocese  of  Pittsburgh,  I  heard  that 
there  were  some  Irish  Catholics  living  in  the  extreme  end 

of - county,  Pennsylvania,  which  was  also  the  extreme 

point  of  the  diocese.  I  resolved  to  try  and  see  them.  I 
arrived  there  late  in  the  afternoon,  and  the  arrangements 
already  made  did  not  permit  me  to  stay  longer  than  the 
afternoon  of  the  next  day.  The  poor  people  were  delighted 
to  have  Mass,  and  an  opportunity  of  approaching  the 
Sacraments.  I  found  about  twenty  families  who  had 
settled  there  during  the  previous  three  or  four  years. 
They  had  all  farms  of  their  own ;  nearly  all  had  paid  for 
them,  and  had  their  land  enough  cleared  to  be  able  to 
support  themselves  well  on  it  thereafter.  They  had  taken 
up  the  land  at  a  low  price,  and  were  able  to  give  time 
enough  to  work  for  hire  amongst  the  older  settlers,  while 
they  had  time  enough  remaining  to  clear  and  cultivate 
each  year  an  additional  portion  of  their  own  land.  It  was 
the  realisation  of  a  system  which  I  had  often  recommended, 
and  which  might  be  carried  out  almost  to  any  extent,  that 
would  enable  our  countrymen  to  be  proprietors  of  the  soil, 
instead  of  remaining  dr  udges  in  our  towns  and  cities .’ 

In  support  of  my  assertion,  that  the  country  is  the  right 
place  for  the  Irish  peasant,  and  that  in  the  cultivation  of 
the  so’il  he  has  the  best  and  surest  means  of  advancement 
for  himself  and  his  family,  I  cannot  do  more,  in  a  work  of 
this  kind,  than  prove,  by  a  few  cases  in  jjoint,  that  the  advice 
I  earnestly  give  to  my  countrymen  at  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic  is  for  their  benefit,  and  for  the  honour  of  their 
race  and  country.  There  is  not  in  America  a  better  man 
or  truer  Irishman  than  the  writer  of  the  words  I  have  just 
quoted ;  and  I  may  add,  that  there  are  not  twenty  men 
in  the  whole  of  the  States  who,  from  long  and  varied  ex¬ 
perience,  and  intimate  knowledge  of  their  countrymen,  can 
speak  with  greater  weight  of  authortity  than  he  can. 


245 


AN  IRISH  PUBLIC  OPINION  WANTED. 

*r 

Turning  from  Pennsylvania  to  Minnesota,  we  have  a 
picture  of  progress  as  like  as  possible  to  many  which  have 
already  appeared  in  these  pages.  I  take  it  from  the  valued 
communication  of  a  zealous  and  able  Irishman  *  in  the 
latter  State,  who — associated  with  other  Irishmen,  including 
a  good  priest — is  successfully  labouring  in  what  I  believe 
to  be  the  most  practically  patriotic  cause  that  could  engage 
the  attention  and  enlist  the  active  sympathies  of  my 
countrymen  in  America — such  Irishmen  as,  by  worth, 
education,  or  position,  can  exercise  a  salutary  influence 
over  those  who  stand  in  need  of  guidance  or,  if  necessary, 
assistance  to  secure  for  themselves  a  home  and  an  honest 
independence.  Advice,  guidance,  information,  influence — 
these  are  even  more  valuable  than  pecuniary  aid  ;  and 
these  require  little  sacrifice,  even  of  time.  What  is 
required  for  the  uplifting  of  thousands  and  thousands — 
nay  hundreds  of  thousands — of  Irish  in  America,  is  an 
active,  energetic,  out-spoken  Irish  Public  Opinion,  that 
will  make  its  voice  and  influence  heard  and  felt  in  every 
direction,  warning  those  who  will  take  warning,  and  saving 
those  who  can  be  saved  from  misery  and  degradation.  To 
be  potent  for  good,  every  organisation  should  be,  like  that 
in  Minnesota,  free  from  the  taint  of  speculation  or  the 
suspicion  of  jobbery ;  and  there  is  not  a  State  in  the  Union, 
or  a  great  city,  in  which  there  should  not  be  found  a  few 
honourable  and  influential  Irish  gentlemen,  who  would 
join  together  for  a  purpose  which  concerns  their  own 
reputation,  inasmuch  as  it  concerns  the  reputation  of  the 
race  to  which  they  belong,  and  cannot  repudiate.  It  is 
considered  by  Irishmen  in  America  a  noble  and  patriotic 
object  to  regenerate,  by  arms  and  revolution,  the  millions 
at  home  ;  but  surely  to  lift  up  the  millions  who  are  in 
the  States — to  regenerate  them  morally,  materially,  and 
socially — to  give  them  greater  power  and  influence  through 
rightly  directed  industry — to  elevate  the  race  in  the  esteem 
Mr.  Dillon  O’Brien,  of  St.  Paul,  Minnesota. 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


246 

of  the  enlightened  and  generous-minded  of  the  American 
people,  — this  is  an  object  more  practical,  in  no  way  hazard¬ 
ous  or  injurious  to  any  interest  or  individual  whatever,  and 
certainly  not  less  noble  or  patriotic. 

But  all  this  while  the  brief  picture  of  an  Irish  Settlement 
in  Minnesota  is  pressing  for  attention.  The  writer  is  the 
Honorary  Secretary  of  the  Irish  Emigrant  Society  of  St. 
Paul,  who,  by  no  means  indifferent  to  the  value  of  a  little 
money  capital,  thus  shows  what  Irishmen  have  done  with 
the  God-given  capital  of  strength,  skill,  and  patient  in¬ 
dustry  : — 

c  Men  who  commenced  the  very  poorest  are  to-day  well 
off.  Let  me  give  you  an  instance.  Sixty  miles  west  of 
St.  Paul,  on  the  Minnesota  river,  Sibly  county,  is  the 
Irish  Settlement  of  Jessen  Land.  About  thirteen  years 
ago  the  first  steamer  that  went  up  the  Minnesota  landed 
two  brothers  of  the  name  of  Doheny,  and  a  man  the  name 
of  Young,  all  from  “gallant  Tipperary,”  at  this  place, 
then  an  unbroken  wilderness.  Perhaps  they  were  the  first 
white  men  who  ever  stood  there.  Well,  they  set  to  work, 
cut  down  a  tree  here  and  there,  put  in  a  few  hills  of 
potatoes,  planted  a  little  corn,  put  a  few  sticks  and  logs 
together,  and  called  them  houses.  This  was  all  necessary 
at  the  time  to  fulfil  the  requirements  of  the  law.  In  this 
way  they  made  claims,  not  alone  for  themselves,  but  for 
friends  in  the  East,  and  became  owners  of  a  large  tract 
of  splendid  land.  When  all  this  was  accomplished  their 
money  was  run  out ;  so  they  returned  to  St.  Paul,  and 
went  again  to  work.  In  the  following  spring  they  again 
■went  up  the  Minnesota,  this  time  bringing  their  families, 
and  the  friends  for  whom  they  had  made  land  entries,  with 
them.  To-day  this  settlement,  and  Walter  and  Tom  Do¬ 
heny,  who  started  it,  are  a  credit  to  us  all.  The  settle¬ 
ment  has  two-storey  handsome  farm-houses  and  barns,  its 
church,  priest,  and  school.  Its  people  are  what  the  Irish 
peasant  can  become  even  in  the  first  generation — intelli- 


IRISH  SETTLEMENTS  IN  MINNESOTA  AND  ILLINOIS.  247 


gent,  industrious,  open-hearted,  generous,  brave,  and  in¬ 
dependent.  When  I  want  to  be  reminded  of  my  dear 
country,  I  spend  a  day  in  Jessen  Land.’ 

Here  is  a  mere  glimpse  of  the  Irish  in  Illinois  : 

An  excellent  Irishman,  residing  in  Chicago,  whose 
business,  as  a  commission  agent,  has  for  the  last  ten  years 
brought  him  into  constant  communication  with  his  country¬ 
men  of  the  farming  classes,  not  only  throughout  Illinois, 
but  several  other  of  the  Western  States,  says:  ‘There  is 
not  a  county  of  the  one  hundred  counties  of  which  Illinois 

1/ 

is  composed,  that  has  not  representatives  from  Ireland 
among  its  farming  population ;  and  I  am  proud  to  say  to 
you,  and  the  world,  that  where  the  Irish  farmer  once  gets 
settled  down  upon  his  farm,  in  this  his  western  home,  that 
he  shows  as  much  energy  and  go-alieadishness  as  emigrants 
from  any  other  part  of  the  world.  We  have,  in  almost 
every  county,  what  are  known  as  Irish  settlements  founded 
by  some  early  adventurous  Irishman.  Several  are  of  great 
extent ;  that,  for  instance,  founded  by  Mr.  Neill  Donnelly, 
in  M’Henry’s  county,  is  one  of  the  finest  in  the  State. 
There  are  three  good-sized  Catholic  churches  and  several 
excellent  district  schools  in  this  settlement,  in  which  there 
is  much  comfort  and  prosperity.’  After  referring  to  the 
harmony  in  which  the  Irish  live  with  all  nationalities,  and 
the  mutual  willingness  to  assist  and  serve  each  other,  my 
excellent  friend  adds  :  ‘Nothing  less  than  80  acres  of 
land  is  worth  while  to  have  out  here,  although  occasionally 
you  will  find  a  small  farm  of  40  acres ;  but  it  is  looked 
upon  as  nothing  in  this  part  of  the  world.  Some  of  my 
Irish  friends  in  Donnelly’s  and  other  settlements,  have 
G40  acres  each,  and  almost  all  at  least  120  acres.  Far¬ 
mers  divide  their  crops  often  in  this  way ;  say  20  acres 
of  wheat,  10,  or  20,  or  40  acres  of  corn,  so  many  acres 
of  oats,  rye,  barley,  potatoes,  &c.,  according  to  the  size 
of  the  farm.  To  afford  you  an  idea  of  the  prosperity 
of  our  Irish  farmers,  I  will  mention  that  often,  in  the 


248 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


course  of  my  business,  I  have  at  one  time  sold  as  high 
as  one  thousand  dollars’  worth  of  pork,  butter,  and  wheat, 
for  one  Irish  farmer ;  and  I  can  tell  you  he  had  not  much 
when  he  began  the  world  here.  But  industry,  and,  above 
all,  sobriety ,  will  carry  an  Irishman  through  any  difficulty. 
We  should  not  have  to  see  a  poor  man  in  any  of  our  big 
cities  while  there  is  a  glorious  State  like  this,  with  the 
best  lai  ds  to  be  had  for  little.  What  I  say  of  Illinois  can 
also  be  said  of  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  and  Minnesota,  as  well  as 
of  Indiana,  Missouri,  Kansas,  and  Nebraska.  All  this  vast 
country  offers  inducements  to  thrifty,  honest  settlers,  such 
as  no  other  country  can  offer ;  and  our  people,  many  of 
whom  are  wasting  their  energies  in  eastern  cities,  would  do 
well  to  avail  themselves  of  them.  I  tell  you  it  would  bene¬ 
fit  them  soul  as  well  as  body  to  do  so.’ 


To  one  who  hears  so  much  as  I  have  heard  of  the  less 
than  21,000,000  acres  of  Ireland,  and  the  77,000,000  of 
the  whole  of  the  United  Kingdom — including  England, 
Wales,  Scotland,  Ireland,  and  every  island  adjoining  or 
belonging  thereto — the  idea  of  the  acreage  of  the  United 
States  is  simply  bewildering.  One  would  require  a  gigantic 
mind  to  grasp  or  comprehend  a  thing  in  itself  so  gigantic. 
Practically  speaking,  the  public  lands,  or  those  which  have 
not  passed  into  individual  ownership,  are  illimitable. 
Millions  and  millions  of  square  miles,  hundreds  of  millions 
of  acres,  never  yet  surveyed — millions  and  millions  of 
square  miles,  and  hundreds  of  millions  of  acres  surveyed, 
but  not  occupied,  and  capable  of  absorbing,  for  centuries, 
the  surplus  population  of  Europe.  Almost  any  one  of  the 
new  Territories — which  will  be  the  States  of  to-morrow — • 
would  swallow,  at  a  bite,  as  a  child  would  a  cherry,  all  the 
agricultural  population  of  Ireland,  with  its  proprietors, 
resident  and  absentee,  included.  One  thing,  however,  is 
indisputable — that  the  Irish  who  have  emigrated,  or  who 


THE  PUBLIC  LANDS  OF  AMERICA. 


243 


may  emigrate  to  America,  ought  to  find  no  difficulty  in 
suiting  themselves  ;  also,  that  there  are  as  good  chances 
to-day  for  the  bold  and  adventurous  as  there  were  ten,  or 
twenty,  or  fifty  years  back. 

Though  it  is  difficult  to  afford  a  sober  idea  of  what  is  of 
itself  well  nigh  incomprehensible  from  its  very  vastness,  I 
must  endeavour  to  represent,  and  that  as  briefly  as  possi¬ 
ble,  the  extent  of  the  Public  Lands  of  the  United  States. 

The  total  extent  of  the  Public  Lands  of  the  United 
States  is  1,468,000,000  acres  ;  of  which  474,160,000  acres 
had  been  explored  and  surveyed  up  to  the  close  of  1866. 
The  surveyed  land  is  generally  well  suited  for  agriculture, 
and  in  the  most  favourably  circumstanced  localities,  on  the 
banks  of  streams,  and  in  the  neighbourhood  of  trunk  roads. 
There  remain  unsurveyed,  and  open  to  any  settler  under 
the  Pre-emption  Laws,  991,308,249  acres.  In  Colorado,  a 
rich  mineral  and  agricultural  State,  only  1,500,000  acres 
are  surveyed,  and  65,000,000,  or  nearly  the  extent  of  the 
entire  of  the  United  Kingdom,  unsurveyed.  In  "Washing¬ 
ton  Territory  3,500,000  are  surveyed,  41,000,000  unsur¬ 
veyed.  In  Oregon,  a  State  into  which  immigrants  pour  at 
the  rate  of  20,000  a  year,  only  5,000,000  acres  are  sur¬ 
veyed,  while  55,000,000  are  unsurveyed.  In  Kansas,  a 
partially  settled  State,  the  surveys  extend  over  16,000,000 
acres,  leaving  35,000,000  unsurveyed.  Nebraska,  13,000,000 
out  of  48,000,000.  California,  with  27,000,000  acres  sur¬ 
veyed,  has  93,000,000  unsurveyed !  This  one  State,  to 
which  the  Irish  have  added  so  large  a  portion  of  its  popu¬ 
lation,  is  six  times  larger  than  Ireland,  or  has  six  times 
more  than  the  number  of  acres  respecting  which  it  ap¬ 
pears — at  least,  up  to  the  time  these  words  are  written — 
to  be  so  impossible  to  deal  with  or  legislate  for  according 
to  the  dictates  of  man’s  wisdom  and  the  principles  of 
God’s  justice.  In  Arizona,  Dacota,  New  Mexico,  Utah, 
Montana,  Idaho,  there  are  enormous  tracts,  to  be  counted 
by  hundreds  of  millions  of  acres,  of  every  variety  of  soil, 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


and  richly  endowed  with  minerals,  open  to  the  emigrant 
In  Minnesota,  into  which  immigration  has  been  strongly 
flowing  for  years,  there  are  31,000,000  of  nnsurveyed 
land.  In  the  older  of  the  still  modern  States  there  are 
vast  tracts  of  land  open  to  the  purchaser,  and  all  sur¬ 
veyed.  Thus,  in  Wisconsin  there  are  33,000,000  acres  ; 
in  Iowa,  35,000,000  ;  Missouri,  41,000,000  ;  Alabama, 
32,000,000  ;  Ohio,  25,000,000  ;  Florida,  20,000,00  :  Ar¬ 
kansas,  33,000,000  ;  Mississippi,  30,000,000  ;  Louisiana, 
23,000,000  ;  Indiana,  21,000,000  ;  Michigan,  30,000,000  ; 
and  Illinois,  35,000,000  acres.  In  the  new  mineral  States, 
such  as  Colorado  and  Nevada,  the  mining  population 
afford  a  ready  market  for  all  surplus  agricultural  produce. 
A  couple  of  years  since  there  were  prices  for  agricultural 
produce  in  Colorado  which  would  remind  one  of  the  state 
of  things  in  California  during  the  first  rush  to  the  gold 
mines  ;  but  cultivation  has  now  so  much  increased,  that 
the  prices,  though  most  remunerative,  have  been  con¬ 
siderably  reduced.  In  the  course  of  time  mining  enter¬ 
prise  will  extend  more  to  Arizona,  Montana,  Idaho,  &c., 
all  the  new  Territories  and  States  being  rich  in  minerals  ; 
and  as  mining  operations  advance  in  any  locality,  the 
agricultural  population  will  be  correspondingly  benefited. 
In  fact,  with  mining  enterprise,  all  kinds  of  manufac¬ 
turing  industries  gradually  spring  up  ;  and  those  who  are 
thus  engaged  form  the  readiest  and  best  customers  to  the 
farmer,  who  finds  with  them  a  profitable  market  for  his 
surplus  produce  of  every  kind. 

The  Government  surveys  not  only  follow  the  course  of 
immigration,  but  meet  its  requirements.  But  there  is 
always  a  large  quantity  of  surveyed  land  in  each  of  the 
new  States,  as  indeed  in  the  others,  available  for  imme¬ 
diate  settlement.  Much  of  it  is  prairie,  which  does  not 
present  the  difficulties  of  timber  land  in  cultivation. 
The  total  thus  available — offered  or  unoffered — in  1866, 
was  sufficient  to  make  831,250  farms  of  160  acres  each 


THE  COAL  AND  IRON  OF  AMERICA. 


25) 


Under  the  Homestead  Law*  a  farm  may  be  had  at  an 
almost*  nominal  price — little  more  than  the  cost  of  its 
survey.  Upon  the  unsurveyed  lands  any  person  may 
enter,  and  proceed  to  appropriate  and  cultivate  a  tract ; 
and  when  the  survey  reaches  and  includes  his  land,  he 
will  have  the  right  of  pre-emption — purchasing  its  fee 
simple — at  a  small  price,  which  may  be  somewhat  en¬ 
hanced  by  a  neighbouring  improvement,  such  as  a  rail¬ 
road  passing  within  a  certain  distance.  The  settler  may 
have  occupied  his  farm  for  years,  it  may  be  two  or  it  may 
be  ten,  before  the  survey  comes  up  to  him,  and  he  can 
therefore  well  afford  to  pay  the  very  moderate  price  which 
the  Government  charges  for  what  is  then  carefully  and  ac¬ 
curately  defined,  and  for  which  his  title  is  made  good 
against  the  world.  Under  the  Homestead  Law  the  limit 
of  the  farms  which  each  individual  can  obtain  is  160  acres ; 
but  under  the  Pre-emption  Law  it  appears  the  settler  may 
purchase  any  quantity  in  proportion  to  the  number  of 
acres  cleared  at  the  time  of  the  earvey. 

The  amazing  vastness  of  the  land  or  territory  of  the 
United  States  may  be  indicated  by  a  single  fact  in  refer¬ 
ence  to  her  mines,  which,  in  addition  to  her  agricultural 
resources,  offer  an  immense  field  for  human  labour.  Her 
coal  lands  alone  cover  an  area  of  two  hundred  thousand 
square  miles;  while  the  combined  coal  fields  of  Europe 
cover  but  16,000  square  miles — that  is,  the  coal  fields 
of  the  United  States  are  more  than  twelve  times  more 
extensive  in  area  than  all  the  coal  fields  of  Europe ! 
Iron,  that  metal  more  really  precious  than  gold,  is  found 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  coal.  With  respect  to  this  valu¬ 
able  mineral,  America  maintains  her  supremacy  of  vast¬ 
ness  ;  and  any  one  who  travels  some  hundred  miles  from 
the  splendid  city  of  St.  Louis  may  behold  a  huge  mountain 
of  solid  iron,  rising  many  hundred  feet  above  the  plain, 
and  presenting  a  striking  feature  in  the  landscape. 

*  For  a  copy  of  the  ‘Act  to  Secure  Homesteads  to  actual  Settlers  on  the  Public 
Domain/  see  Appendix. 


252 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


It  is  not  at  all  necessary  that  an  Irish  immigrant  should 
go  West,  whatever  and  how  great  the  inducements  it  offers 
to  the  enterprising.  There  is  land  to  be  had,  under  certain 
circumstances  and  conditions,  in  almost  every  State  in  the 
Union.  And  there  is  no  State  in  "which  the  Irish  peasant 
who  is  living  from  hand  to  mouth  in  one  of  the  great  cities 
as  a  day-labourer,  may  not  improve  his  condition  by  be¬ 
taking  himself  to  his  natural  and  legitimate  avocation — 
the  cultivation  of  the  soil.  Nor  is  the  vast  region  of  the 
South  unfavourable  to  the  laborious  and  energetic  Irish¬ 
man.  On  the  contrary,  there  is  no  portion  of  the  Ameri¬ 
can  continent  in  which  he  would  receive  a  more  cordial 
welcome,  or  meet  with  more  favourable  terms.  This  would 
not  have  been  so  before  the  war,  or  the  abolition  of  slavery, 
and  the  upset  of  the  land  system  which  was  based  upon 
the  compulsory  labour  of  the  negro.  Before  the  war,  the 
land  was  held  in  mass  by  large  proprietors,  and,  whatever 
its  quantity,  there  was  no  dividing  or  selling  it — that  is 
willingly;  for  when  land  was  brought  to  the  hammer, 
the  convenience  of  the  purchaser  had  to  be  consulted. 
But  there  was  no  voluntary  division  of  the  soil,  no  cutting 
it  up  into  parcels,  to  be  occupied  by  small  proprietors. 
Now,  the  state  of  things  is  totally  different.  Too  much 
land  in  the  hands  of  one  individual  may  now  be  as  em¬ 
barrassing  in  the  South  as  in  the  North,  especially  when 
it  is  liable  to  taxation.  The  policy  of  the  South  is  to 
increase  and  strengthen  the  white  population,  so  as  not  to 
be,  as  the  South  yet  is,  toa  much  dependent  on  the  negro  ; 
and  the  planter  who,  ten  years  ago,  would  not  sever  a  single 
acre  from  his  estate  of  2,000,  or  10,000,  or  20,000  acres, 
will  now  readily  divide,  if  not  all,  at  least  a  considerable 
portion  of  it,  into  saleable  quantities,  to  suit  the  conve¬ 
nience  of  purchasers.  He  will  do  more  than  divide  ;  he 
will  sell  on  fair  terms,  and  he  will  afford  a  fair  time  to  pay 
—he  will,  in  fact,  do  all  in  his  power  to  promote  the  growth 
of  the  white  population,  while  yielding  to  the  necessity  of 


DOWN  SOUTH. 


253 


the  times,  which  compels  him  to  part  with  what  lias 
become  rather  burdensome  and  embarrassing  to  himself. 

This  is  a  subject  on  which  I  could  not  venture  to  write 
without  the  fullest  authority  ;  but  I  have  spoken  with 
hundreds  of  Southerners  of  rank  and  position,  men  identi¬ 
fied  with  the  South  by  the  strongest  ties  of  birth,  property, 
and  patriotism  ;  and  I  know,  from  unreserved  interchange 
of  opinion  with  them,  that  the  general  feeling  of  the  en¬ 
lightened  and  the  politic  is  in  favour  of  inducing  European 
settlers  to  come  to  the  South,  and  come  on  easy  terms.  ‘  The 
experience  of  the  past  year  (186G),’  said  a  well-informed 
Southern  gentleman  to  me,  ‘leads  most  of  our  people  to 
see  the  absolute  necessity  of  dividing  and  sub-dividing 
the  large  plantations’  I  heard  almost  the  same  words 
used  in  several  of  the  Southern  States,  as  well  by  owners 
of  large  estates  as  by  persons  extensively  engaged  in  the 
sale  and  management  of  property. 

There  is  a  prejudice,  and  a  somewhat  ignorant  pre¬ 
judice,  against  the  South ;  the  prevalent  idea  being  that 
no  one  but  the  negro  can  venture  to  brave  its  climate — 
that  open-air  labour  in  the  South  is  death  to  the  wdiite 
man.  I  know  of  Irishmen  who  cultivate  farms  in  all  the 
Southern  States,  and  who  work  at  them  themselves ;  aDd 
that  they  and  their  children  are  strong  and  robust.  But 
not  only  are  some  of  the  Southern  States  temperate  and 
genial,  but  in  almost  all  those  States  there  are  portions 
which  are  most  favourable  to  the  industry  and  longevity 
of  the  white  man.  I  was  anxious  to  obtain  reliable  in¬ 
formation  on  this  point,  and  I  received  from  the  Bishop 
of  Charleston — the  honoured  son  of  a  good  Irishman — a 
statement  respecting  a  State  that,  perhaps  of  all  others, 
is  the  one  to  which  prejudice  wrould  first  point  as  the  most 
unsuited  to  the  labour  of  the  European.  South  Carolina, 
like  all  the  Southern  States,  has  its  belts,  of  soil  as  well 
as  climate,  favourable  and  unfavourable  to  the  European 
immigrant.  Dr.  Lynch  says  of  his  State,  that  it  is  ‘  pro- 


251 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


bably  the  most  Irish  of  any  of  the  States  of  the  Union. 
‘Irish  family  names  abound  in  every  rank  and  condition 
of  life ;  and  there  are  few  men,  natives  of  the  State,  in 
whose  veins  there  does  not  run  more  or  less  of  Irish  blood.’ 
He  adds,  ‘  While  its  inhabitants  have  always  had  the 
impetuous  character  of  the  Irish  race,  nowhere  has  there 
been  a  more  earnest  sympathy  for  the  struggles  of  Irish¬ 
men  at  home,  nowhere  will  the  Irish  immigrant  be 
received  with  greater  welcome,  or  be  .more  generously 
supported  in  all  his  rights ;  and  I  do  not  know  any  part 
of  the  country  where  industry  and  sobriety  would  ensure 
to  the  immigrant  who  engages  in  agriculture  an  ampler 
compensation  for  himself  and  family  in  a  briefer  number 
of  years.’  In  his  communication,  written  in  compliance 
with  my  request,  the  Bishop  points  out  the  healthy  and 
the  unhealthy,  the  favourable  and  the  unfavourable,  belts 
or  districts  of  his  State.* 

In  reference  to  the  Southern  States  I  had  the  opinion 
of  an  eminent  Irishman,  one  who  laid  down  the  highest 
dignity  in  the  church  for  an  humble  position,  in  which  he 
is  honoured  and  beloved.  His  knowledge  of  the  country 
is  intimate  and  extensive,  and  his  experience  goes  back 
more  than  thirty  years.  I  was  anxious  to  have  his  opinion 
as  to  the  suitability  of  the  South  for  the  Irish  emigrant, 
as  I  knew  he  had  recently  been  in  most  of  its  States ; 
and  it  is  thus  given  : — 

‘  During  my  late  trip  to  the  South  I  made  various  en¬ 
quiries  regarding  the  prospects  there  for  Irish  emigrants 
The  result  of  these  enquiries  was,  that  a  great  field  was 
open  for  them ;  but  I  feel  convinced  that  it  could  scarcely 
be  made  useful  for  them  in  a  temporal  or  spiritual  point 
of  view  without  more  combination  and  organised  efforts 
than  I  think  it  at  all  likely,  at  least  at  present,  to  be 
obtained  amongst  our  people,  or  any  parties  that  could  be 
induced  to  act  for  them  or  to  direct  them.  If  such 

*  For  the  Bishop’s  letter,  see  Appendix. 


A  KILDARE  MAN  IN  THE  SOUTH. 


255 


organisation  could  be  effected,  I  believe  the  South  would 
offer  a  better  held  for  emigration  than  any  other  part  of 
the  country.’ 

Bishop  Lynch  insists  on  ‘  industry  and  sobriety  ’  as  the 
grand  essentials  to  the  Irishman’s  success  in  the  South  ; 
and  when  I  was  in  Charleston  he  afforded  me  the  oppor¬ 
tunity  of  witnessing,  in  the  person  of  a  countryman  from 
the  county  Kildare,  as  good  an  illustration  as  I  could  desire 
to  behold  of  the  happy  exercise  of  these  noble  qualities. 
Some  three  or  four  miles  outside  the  city  we  arrived  at  a 
snug  prosperous-looking  place,  a  good  house  surrounded  by 
a  farm  of  rich  land,  in  which  acres  of  vegetables  and  green 
crops  of  various  kinds  were  then  in  luxuriant  growth,  being 
cultivated  in  a  manner  that  would  satisfy  even  a  London 
market  gardener.  Twenty-three  years  ago  the  owner  of 
this  valuable  property — worth  more  than  $20,000 — arrived 
in  America,  with  little  money  in  his  pocket,  but  with  some 
knowledge  of  farming,  and  a  speciality  for  the  cultivation 
of  vegetables.  He  remained  c  knocking  about  ’  the  nor¬ 
thern  cities  for  six  months,  living  from  hand  to  mouth, 
taking  such  day  work  as  he  could  obtain.  *  This  won’t  do,’ 
said  the  boy  from  Kildare  to  himself ;  ‘  it’s  all  well  for  the 
day,  but  there’s  nothing  for  the  morrow  or  the  next  day  ; 
I  must  try  and  get  something  to  make  me  independent.’ 
So  in  pursuit  of  independence  he  came  down  South,  where 
lie  entered  the  employment  of  a  gentlemen  of  famous 
name  in  America,  but  whose  parents  were  both  4  full- 
blooded  Irish,’  and  whose  approbation  the  boy  from 
Kildare  won  by  the  success  with  which  he  cultivated 
vegetables  and  green  crops.  Had  there  been  a  priest  or 
a  church  within  covenient  distance,  the  young  Irishman 
would  have  willingly  remained  in  his  good  employment, 
continuing  to  lay  aside  the  greater  portion  of  his  wages  ; 
but  as  many  as  eight  months  would  pass  before  he  could 
gratify  the  pious  longing  of  his  Catholic  heart ;  and  so,  at 
length,  and  much  against  his  will,  he  quitted  the  great 


256 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


man’s  service.  With  his  earnings  he  came  to  Charleston — 
not  into  the  city,  unless  to  say  his  prayers  and  make  neces¬ 
sary  purchases  or  sales — and  set  to  work,  like  a  sensible 
Irishman,  at  the  business  he  best  knew.  But  without 
entering  into  the  details  of  years  of  honest  and  sober 
industry,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  his  fine  farm  is  his  own 
property,  and  that  he  has  given  to  his  children  a  liberal 
education.  Kindly,  good-natured,  active  and  full  of  health, 
this  man,  though  now  of  middle  age,  is  as  simple  in 
manner — as  natural  and  as  Irish — as  he  was  the  day  he 
saw  the  last  of  £  Kildare’s  holy  shrine.’  Possibly  I  am 
somewhat  prejudiced  in  his  favour  ;  for  a  more  pleasant 
cup  of  tea  I  never  drank  in  America  than  that  which  I 
received  from  the  hands  of  his  wife — the  more  pleasant 
because  of  a  previous  and  somewhat  extended  exploration 
round  and  through  the  famous  city  of  Charleston.  A  sober 
man,  he  was  c  not  a  bit  the  worse  of  the  climate  ;  ’  and  his 
looks  fully  justified  his  words.  This  man’s  capital  was 
industry,  intelligence,  and  good  conduct ;  and  in  America, 
perhaps  more  surely  than  in  any  country  under  the  sun, 
this  kind  of  capital  is  sure  to  create  the  other  capital — the 
dollar  and  the  dollar’s  worth. 

When  in  Augusta,  Georgia,  I  fell  in  with  perhaps  ono 
of  the  best  persons  to  offer  a  practical  opinion  as  to  the 
suitability  of  the  South  for  the  settlement  of  the  Irish. 
Names  are  not  necessary  to  be  mentioned  in  most  instances, 
but  in  this  instance  the  name  of  my  authority  for  the 
following  statement  may  be  given.  Mr.  H.  C.  Bryson, 
from  the  north  of  Ireland,  has  been  engaged  for  forty  years 
in  the  cotton  trade  ;  and  he  holds  that  the  temperate  por¬ 
tions  of  Alabama,  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Mississippi, 
are  well  suited  to  the  settlement  and  healthful  labour  of 
the  Irish.  He  mentioned  many  cases  in  point,  where  the 
Irish  had  settled,  gone  on  prosperously,  and  maintained 
the  most  robust  health.  One  illustration,  and  that  a  very 
striking  and  comprehensive  one,  will  however  suffice.  In 


TIPPERARY  MEN  IN  THE  SOUTH. 


257 


tlie  year  1850,  about  fifty  Irish  families,  all  from  the 
county  Tipperary, — Burkes,  Keilings,  Keatings,  Hyneses, 
Hartys,  Mahers,  &c., — made  their  way  down  from  the 
North,  and  settled  in  Talliafero  county,  Georgia.  They 
were  hard-working,  sober  people,  but  amongst  them  all 
they  did  not  possess  a  hundred  dollars.  One  of  the  men 
had  to  bring  one  of  his  children  on  his  back,  while  the 
other  little  ones  trotted  alongside  him.  In  a  very  short 
time  after,  these  hard-working,  sober  people,  who  would  not 
‘  hang  about  the  cities,’  were  in  comfortable  circumstances, 
entirely  the  result  of  their  labour  and  industry — that 
capital  which  money  cannot  always  purchase.  These 
Irishmen  in  the  South  raise  corn,  cotton,  and  stock  ;  and 
in  all  they  do,  they  are  more  careful  and  particular  than 
man-y  of  the  people  around  them.  Mr.  Bryson  has  often 
sold  from  five  to  ten  bales  of  cotton  for  each  of  them,  at 
$125  the  bale.  ‘They  are  more  particular,’  says  Mr. 
Bryson,  ‘and  take  more  pains  with  their  corn  and  their 
cotton,  than  most  of  their  neighbours.  They  are  all  strong 
and  hearty  ;  in  fact,  I  never  heard  of  one  of  them  being 
ill — and  I  know  every  man  of  them  well.  But  this  I 
attribute  rather  to  their  frugal  life  and  temperate  habits 
than  to  any  other  cause.  They  have  a  fine  school  of  their 
own,  and  can  go  to  their  church  as  well  as  the  best  people 
in  the  country  ;  they  have  good  houses,  abundance  of 
everything  they  can  desire — and  I  assure  you  they  could 
entertain  you  as  well  as  any  men  in  the  State.  They  are 
a  credit  to  any  country.  But  the  Irishman,  when  he  comes 
>ut  here,  is  among  the  most  industrious  of  all.’ 

‘  I  think,’  adds  Mr.  Bryson,  ‘  that  the  cotton  raised  by 
men  of  this  class — men  who  work  at  it  themselves,  and 
who  have  an  interest  in  what  they  are  doing — is  the  finest 
grown  of  any.  It  is  better  handled,  and  more  carefully 
picked.  None  of  these  men  owned  a  slave,  and  so  much 
the  better  for  them  ;  for  they  have  lost  nothing  by  the 
change,  while  others  lost  the  greater  part  of  their  capital. 


25S 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


I  spoke  of  tlie  health  enjoyed  by  the  Irish  who  are  farm¬ 
ing*.  In  Locust  Grove  there  are  a  good  many  of  them, 
and  for  the  last  ten  years  I  don’t  know  of  an  adult  among 
them  dying,  save  one — for  I  don’t  count  a  poor  fellow  who 
came  home  from  the  Army  in  Virginia  to  die ;  and  that 
one  that  I  do  count  was  Murdoch  Griffin,  but  he  was 
sixty-eiglit  years  old  when  he  died,  and  he  had  hard  work 
in  his  day.  Griffin  started  about  thirty-five  years  since, 
without  a  dollar  in  his  pocket ;  and  when  he  died  his 
property  was  worth  $70,000  in  gold.  Any  Irishman  that 
goes  into,  the  country  with  his  family  can  do  well,  and 
make  a  fortune.’ 

This  was  the  testimony  of  a  shrewd  observant  Northern 
Irishman, — as  good  an  authority  on  the  subject  of  which 
he  spoke  as  could  be  found  in  the  whole  of  the  United 
States. 

And  in  the  city  of  Augusta,  in  which  there  are  several 
Irish  doing  a  good  business,  and  holding  a  good  position, 
there  is  an  Irish  settlement,  known  by  the  name  of  Dublin ; 
which  is  occupied  by  a  hard-working,  industrious,  thrifty, 
and  sober  population,  to  whom  the  houses  and  the  land  on 
which  they  stand  belong. 

An  able  and  experienced  Irishman — himself  one  of  the 
most  successful  citizens  of  Memphis,  Tennessee — remarked 
to  me  one  day:  ‘The  trouble  is,  that  the  Irish  don’t  go 
on  the  land  as  much  as  they  ought.  I  never  knew  an 
Irishman  that  pulled  up  pegs,  and  went  on  the  land,  that 
did  not  do  well.  All  have  done  well  that  went  into  the 
30untry.  It  is  now  the  easiest  thing  in  the  world  to  get 
and,  and  good  land  too,  at  fair  terms.  Take  an  example 
in  a  man  from  your  own  part  of  Ireland,  to  show  you  how 
an  Irishman  may  purchase  a  good  property  here.  A  man 
from  Cork,  a  mere  labourer,  went  out  to  Brownsville, 
ditching — in  other  words,  fencing,  to  keep  in  cattle.  That 
was  in  18G2.  I  know  that  man  to  have  $3,300  in  bank, 
and  $1,500  besides;  that  is,  nearly  $5,000  in  all.  He  has 


THE  CLIMATE  OF  THE  SOUTH. 


259 


not  yet  invested  in  land,  but  lie  intends  doing  so.  He  is 
looking  about  him,  and  he  will  be  sure  to  pick  up  a  splen¬ 
did  thing  for  the  money.  This  Cork  man  of  yours  now 
hires  a  couple  of  negroes,  and  does  work  by  contract.5 

‘But  the  climate?5  I  enquired. 

‘  Climate ! — all  nonsense  about  the  climate.  Climate ! 
Why,  you  have  more  sunstrokes  in  one  month  in  New  York 
than  there  are  for  a  whole  year,  in  the  entire  of  the  South. 
If  a  man  drinks,  the  climate  will  tell  on  him — may  kill 
him ;  but  if  he  is  a  sober  man,  there  is  no  fear  of  him. 
That  is  my  experience ;  and  I  have  a  pretty  long  one,  I 
can  tell  you.  The  land,  sir,  is  the  thing — the  country  the 
place  for  our  people.  The  land  will  give  a  man  everything 
but  coffee,  tea  or  sugar  ;  these  he  can  buy,  and  live  like 
a  king.  I  know  an  Irishman,  who  was  a  porter  in  a  hotel, 
at  $25  a  month.  He  went  five  miles  out  of  the  city,  and 
leased  forty  acres,  took  a  dairy,  bought  cows,  and  brought 
his  milk  into  the  city.  He  is  now  the  owner  of  eighty 
acres  of  valuable  land,  with  a  fine  house,  and  every  comfort 
for  himself  and  his  family.  The  land,  sir !  the  land,  sir ! 
is  the  place  for  our  people  ;  tell  them  so.5 

I  do  not  venture  to  suggest  to  the  Irishman'  in  America, 
or  the  Irishman  who  intends  to  emigrate  to  America,  to 
what  State  of  the  Union  he  should  go  in  search  of  a  home. 
All  I  say  is  this :  if  he  is  a  farmer,  a  farm-labourer,  a  pea¬ 
sant — that  is,  a  man  horn  and  bred  in  the  country — let  him 
(jo  anywhere,  so  that  he  goes  out  of  the  city.  Turn  wThere 
he  may,  he  is  always  sure  to  find  a  market  for  his  labour ; 
and  having  obtained  the  employment  best  suited  to  his 
knowledge  and  capacity,  he  can  put  by  his  dollars,  and 
look  around  him  to  see  if  anything  in  the  neighbourhood 
would  suit  him,  or  is  within  his  reach ;  or  if  there  be  no 
fair  opening  for  him,  no  prospect  of  making  a  home  there, 
then  he  has  only  to  push  on  farther,  and  he  will  be  certain 
to  find  the  land  and  the  home  to  his  liking.  ‘With  money 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


2  GO 

in  his  pocket  and  strength  in  his  arms,  and  a  determination 
to  employ  both  to  the  best  advantage,  surely  there  is  little 
fear  of  the  Irishman  who  desires  to  make  a  home  for  him¬ 
self  in  the  New  "World. 

In  a  word,  the  peasant — the  man  of  the  spade,  the 
plough,  and  the  harrow — for  the  country,  the  land,  the 
soil.  So  the  artizan,  the  mechanic,  the  handycraftsman, 
for  the  city,  the  workshop,  the  factory — for  the  place  and 
occupation  which  are  best  suited  to  his  skill,  his  capacity, 
and  his  training.  One  would  not,  at  least  ought  not,  re¬ 
commend  a  watchmaker,  or  an  engineer,  or  a  gas-fitter,  or  a 
house-painter,  or  a  boiler-maker,  to  go  into  the  forest  and 
hew  down  trees,  or  to  the  prairie  and  turn  it  up  with  a 
plough  and  a  team  of  oxen.  The  city  is  their  right  place. 
But,  even  with  the  mechanic,  discrimination  is  necessary. 
Young  and  rising  cities  may  offer  better  opportunities  to 
the  skilled  workman  than  old  cities,  in  which  the  compe¬ 
tition  is  fierce,  the  special  trade  may  be  overdone,  and 
the  cost  of  living  is  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  payment, 
however  liberal  that  may  be.  In  new  places  the  prudent 
man  may  secure  his  lot,  or  his  two  lots,  even  a  block,  on 
reasonable  terms ;  and  as  time  goes  on — a  short  time  in 
the  States — the  town  extends,  the  population  increases, 
and  property  rises  in  value  ;  and  thus,  with  comparatively 
little  outlay,  a  prudent  man  may  become  rich,  with  small 
trouble  and  so  risk.  Then,  in  rising  places,  the  demand 
for  certain  classes  of  skilled  labour  is  greater,  and  its  re¬ 
muneration  larger,  than  in  places  already  built  and  long 
settled.  The  prudent  artizan  may  thus  have  two  strings 
to  his  bow,  and  both  of  them  serviceable :  he  may  work 
at  greater  advantage,  and  speculate  with  greater  cer¬ 
tainty  of  profit.  There  are  in  America  thousands  of  Irish¬ 
men — not  a  few  of  them  ‘millionaires’ — who,  prudent 
and  far-seeing,  have  risen  with  the  fortunes  of  new  places, 
in  which  they  secured  a  large  interest  by  timely  and 
judicious  investment.  I  have  met  with  several  of  tliesG 


CALIFORNIA  AN  ILLUSTRATION  OF  THE  TRUE  POLICY.  2G1 


men,  and  I  heard  from  their  own  lips  the  story  of  their 
good  fortune. 

Taking  all  things  into  consideration,  I  do  not  know  of 
any  of  the  States  which  affords  a  more  favourable  illus¬ 
tration  of  the  policy  I  desire  to  urge  on  my  countrymen, 
than  California  ;  where  the  Irish,  besides  being  engaged 
in  many  profitable  pursuits,  are  also  found  largely  dis¬ 
tributed  over  the  land,  and  where  the  knowledge  of  farm¬ 
ing  which  they  brought  with  them  from  the  old  country 
has  been  turned  by  them  to  the  best  account. 

I  shall  therefore  glance  at  that  magnificent  State,  to 
ascertain  in  what  position  the  Irish  are  there  to  be  found. 


202 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


California  of  the  Past  and  Present — Early  Irish  Settlers — Heath 
amid  the  Mountains — Pat  Clark.  But  One  Mormon — The  Irish 
wisely  settle  on  the  Land — How  they  Succeeded  in  the  Cities — 
Successful  Thrift.  Irish  Girls — The  Church  in  San  Francisco — 
What  a  poor  Irishman  can  do. 

HERE  is  not  a  State  in  tlie  Union  in  which  the 


Irish  have  taken  deeper  and  stronger  root,  or  thriven 


more  successfully,  than  California,  in  whose  amazing  pro¬ 
gress — material,  social,  and  intellectual — they  have  had 
a  conspicuous  share.  For  nearly  twenty  years  past  this 
region  has  been  associated  in  the  popular  mind  with 
visions  of  boundless  wealth  and  marvellous  fortunes  ;  and 
it  may  be  interesting  to  learn  under  what  circumstances 
the  Irish  became  connected  with  a  country  of  such  uni¬ 
versal  repute,  and  of  whose  population  they  form  a  most 
important  and  valuable  portion. 

Long  before  the  discovery  of  the  precious  metal  at¬ 
tracted  the  adventurous  from  every  quarter  of  the  globe  to 
the  golden  shores  of  the  Pacific,  Irishmen  had  made  their 
home  in  California,  where  they  had  been  hospitably  re¬ 
ceived  by  the  kindly  Spanish  race,  with  whom  they  freely 
intermixed,  and  amongst  whom  they  were  in  the  enjoy¬ 
ment  of  abundant  means,  won  by  honest  industry,  or  the 
result  of  no  less  lfcjourable  public  service.  And  how 
different  the  California  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  since 
from  the  California  of  the  present  day!  It  retains  but  a 
faint  resemblance  to  what  it  was  when  the  sole  occupants 
and  lords  of  the  soil  were  the  good  missionary  priests,  the 
ranclieros,  and  the  Indians.  Then  the  peaceful  dweller 


CALIFORNIA  OF  TIIE  PAST  AND  PRESENT. 


203 


amidst  tlie  beautiful  solitude,  belield  nature  in  its  most 
lovely  and  attractive  form  ;  a  wide  expanse  of  undulating 
plain  and  charming  valley,  rich  and  well  watered,  un¬ 
fenced  and  untilled  ;  groves  and  noble  forests  of  oak,  pine, 
cedar,  and  other  trees  of  majestic  size,  some  growing 
singly  or  in  groups,  as  if  planted  by  the  hand  of  taste  ; 
large  and  numerous  herds  of  horses  and  cattle  roaming 
over  the  luxuriant  pastures,  the  only  living  objects  giving 
evidence  of  the  presence  or  proximity  of  man.  But  a  few 
years  have  passed  since  then,  and  what  a  change  !  The 
landscape  chequered  with  smiling  farms,  homesteads,  and 
villas — dotted  over  with  towns  and  villages — life  and 
movement  everywhere — evidences  of  the  energy  and  in¬ 
dustry  of  man  in  all  directions.  Where  there  stood  a 
few  huts  on  the  sea-shore,  there  is  now  a  great  city,  with 
bustling  wharves  and  crowded  thoroughfares  and  busy 
population — a  majestic  cathedral,  and  the  rival  churches 
of  almost  every  diversity  of  religious  belief.  The  rancheros 
and  the  Indians  have  passed  away,  never  to  return  ;  but 
the  Cross  is  still  there,  thanks,  in  a  great  measure,  to  those 
islanders  who  have  been  so  wonderfully  selected  by  Pro¬ 
vidence  as  the  most  successful  missionaries  of  the  Faith 
in  this  century,  as  in  others  now  remote. 

Among  the  few,  not  of  Spanish  origin,  who  settled  in 
California  prior  to  1848,  were  many  Irish,  of  every  class, 
who  proved,  by  their  presence  in  a  distant  and  then  almost 
unknown  country,  to  the  possession  of  those  qualities  so 
essential  in  the  pioneer  of  civilisation — courage,  enter¬ 
prise,  and  love  of  adventure.  The  first  sojourners  were 
the  mountain  trappers,  whose  knowledge  and  education 
extended  little  beyond  the  woodcraft  so  necessary  to  suc¬ 
cess  in  their  perilous  occupation.  The  trapper’s  chief 
thought  was  of  the  trail  and  the  Indian  ambush  ;  his  con¬ 
stant  study,  the  habits  and  the  haunts  of  game ;  his 
wealth  and  his  defence,  a  rifle  and  a  horse.  This  was  a 
wild  and  dangerous,  occasionally  a  remunerative  calling. 


2(i4 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


which  too  often  terminated  in  his  being  a  victim  to  the 
bullet  or  the  knife  of  the  treacherous  savage,  who  adorned 
his  wigwam  with  the  scalp  of  the  white  invader  of  his 
hunting  grounds.  To  one  of  this  class,  an  Irishman, 
Captain  J.  S.  Smith,  is  due  the  credit  of  having  led  the 
first  party  of  white  men  over  land  to  California.  At  the 
head  of  a  band  of  some  forty  trappers,  in  the  service  of  the 
American  Fur  Company,  he  had  the  courage  to  cross  the 
lofty  ridges  and  formidable  barriers  of  the  Sierra  Nevada. 
Smith,  who  was  a  native  of  the  King’s  county,  emigrated 
at  an  early  age  to  the  United  States,  joined  the  Fur  Com¬ 
pany,  and  ultimately  became  chief  trader  at  their  post  on 
Green  Biver.  In  one  of  his  excursions,  exploring  the 
county  south  and  west  of  Salt  Lake,  he  crossed  over  to 
California,  visited  San  Diego  and  San  Jose,  where  he 
encamped  with  his  party  for  some  time.  There  is  a  letter 
of  his  extant,  written  in  May,  1827,  to  Padre  Zuran,  the 
missionary  priest  of  San  Josd,  in  which  he  gives  an  ac¬ 
count  of  himself,  and  his  reasons  for  remaining  so  long  in 
the  vicinity.  On  his  return  trip  he  and  most  of  his  party 
were  slain  by  #  the  Indians  east  of  the  Sierra.  But  few 
escaped — four  or  five  at  most;  and  among  them  was  an 
Irishman  who,  from  his  great  stature,  was  known  as  Big 
Fallen.  He  remained  in  the  country. 

Between  the  years  1825  and  1836,  some  few  Irishmen 
arrived  by  sea,  and  settled  in  California.  These  were 
principally  masters  or  other  officers  of  American  trading 
vessels,  or  seamen  before  the  mast,  with  an  occasional  ad¬ 
venturer  in  search  of  a  home ;  and  being  wise  enough  to 
appreciate  the  advantages  offered  by  a  lovely  country  and 
a  fine  climate,  and  liki\  g  the  character  of  the  inhabitants, 
they  resolved  to  abandon  the  deep  and  its  dangers,  and 
cast  anchor  for  life  on  shore.  Generally  settling  in  the  dif¬ 
ferent  sea-ports,  they  soon,  owing  to  their  knowledge  and 
industry,  became  independent;  and  having  married  and 
become  naturalised,  they  were  recognised  and  treated  by 


EARLY  IRISH  SETTLERS. 


205 


the  kindly  and  hospitable  people  amongst  whom  they  came 
as  belonging  to  themselves.  Their  similarity  of  religion 
was  greatly  in  their  favour  with  the  Spaniards  ;  and  this 
important  advantage  was  in  no  small  degree  enhanced 
by  the  ease  and  quickness  with  which  they  acquired  the 
language  of  the  country,  as  well  as  by  their  natural 
politeness  and  their  deference  to  the  fairer  portion  of 

the  creation,  traits  for  which  the  Irish  are  at  all  times 

% 

honourably  distinguished.  These  qualities  and  accom¬ 
plishments  rendered  them  great  favourites  with  the  de¬ 
scendants  of  the  Castilian  hidalgo,  and  facilitated  their 
worldly  success.  Many  of  these  early  settlers  were  men 
of  fair  education  and  good  manners,  and  came  principally 
from  the  Southern  provinces  of  Ireland.  Among  them 
were  to  be  found  Reads  and  Dens  of  Waterford,  Allens  of 
Dublin,  Murphys  of  Wexford,  Burkes  of  Galway,  Cop- 
pingers  of  Cork,  and  others.  Some  became  extensive 
proprietors  of  land  and  raisers  of  stock,  others  practised 
as  physicians,  while  more  acquired  wealth  and  repute  as 
enterprising  merchants  ;  and  they  with  their  families,  that 
quickly  sprung  up  around  them — vigorous  in  body  as  in 
intellect — formed  the  nucleus  of  that  Irish  and  Catholic 
element  which  wras  to  be  so  wonderfully  strengthened  by 
subsequent  and  continuous  emigration. 

I  might  be  inclined  to  linger  over  the  history  and  for¬ 
tunes  of  Don  Timoteo  Murphy,  who,  arriving  in  1829  from 
Peru,  wdiere  he  had  spent  two  years,  rose  to  an  eminent 
position,  as  Administrator  of  the  Mission,  and  Alcalde  for 
the  district  of  San  Rafael,  acquired  vast  estates,  and  was 
universally  esteemed  and  honoured  during  a  residence 
of  a  quarter  of  a  century  in  th<?,v  country.  He  is  thus 
spoken  of  by  a  fellow-countryman  and  friend,  himself 
one  of  the  most  fortunate  and  respected  of  the  Irish 
settlers  in  California  :  ‘  Murphy  was  a  splendid  specimen 
of  a  man,  tall,  powerful,  and  wTell-built,  a  good  horseman 
and  keen  hunter.  He  imported  the  first  greyhounds  to 

12 


2G6 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


California,  and  kept  a  kennel  of  twenty  to  thirty  hounds  ; 
the  abundance  of  deer,  elk,  and  antelope  afforded  material 
for  the  chase,  and  Murphy  gave  them  httle  rest.  He  was 
hospitable,  kind,  and  generous,  and  looked  up  to  as  a 
father  by  the  people  of  the  country.’ 

About  the  year  1838,  the  trail  across  the  Sierras  to  Cali¬ 
fornia  began  to  be  travelled  more  frequently  by  hunters. 
In  twro  years  after  a  small  party  of  emigrants  arrived  by 
that  route  ;  and  from  that  date  to  the  present  each  suc¬ 
ceeding  year  has  brought  with  it  bands  of  hardy  and 
adventurous  men  and  women  to  develop  the  resources 
of  that  portion  of  the  American  continent.  In  the  ex¬ 
ploring  expedition  of  John  C.  Fremont  many  Irishmen 
joined,  and  remained  afterwards  in  the  country. 

The  year  1844  witnessed  a  remarkable  arrival — that  of 
a  body  of  immigrants  from  Canada  and  Missouri,  mostly 
Irish,  including  a  single  family  numbering  no  less  than 
five-and-twenty  individuals.  This  party  formed  a  valuable 
addition  to  the  community,  consisting  of  respectable  and 
intelligent  men,  who,  from  their  previous  traning,  were  weH 
fitted  to  cope  with  the  difficulties  incidental  to  a  settlement 
in  a  new  country.  The  leader  of  this  party  was  Mr.  Martin 
Murphy,  a  native  of  Wexford,  who  brought  with  him 
his  family  of  sons,  daughters,  and  grand-children.  Mr. 
Murphy  had  originally  emigrated  to  Lower  Canada,  from 
which  he  passed  to  Missouri  ;  but,  not  finding  that  the 
Missouri  of  that  day  realised  the  anticipations  which 
he  had  formed  of  it,  he  decided,  old  as  he  was — he  was 
then  in  his  sixtieth  year — c  n  seeking  a  home  more  suited 
to  his  habits  and  feelings.  He  gathered  together  the 
different  branches  of  'obis  family,  and  joining  with  other 
Irish  families  in  their  neighbourhood,  thus  formed  a 
numerous  party,  or  train,  to  cross  the  plains  to  California, 
whither  they  were  destined.  Martin  Murphy  must  have 
had  considerable  pluck,  fortitude,  and  confidence  in  him¬ 
self  and  his  associates,  to  start  on  a  journey  of  2,500 


DEATH  AMID  TIIE  MOUNTAINS. 


2G7 


miles  over  a  trackless  prairie,  inhabited  by  fierce  and 
hostile  Indians,  bound  to  a  land  then  little  known,  and 
that  only  from  the  vague  accounts  afforded  by  trappers  and 
others,  who  from  time  to  time  returned  to  the  settlements 
in  Western  Missouri.  The  party,  however,  reached  their 
destination  in  safety,  having  met  with  no  casualty  beyond 
the  loss  of  their  waggons,  which  they  were  compelled  to 
abandon  in  the  defiles  of  the  Sierras.  The  gallant  leader, 
with  his  unmarried  sons  and  daughters,  settled  in  the 
valley  of  San  Jose,  where  the  family  purchased  large 
tracts  of  land,  and  became  extensive  owners  of  stock, 
counting  the  one  by  the  league,  and  the  other  by  the 
thousand.  It  is  a  little  more  than  a  year  since  Martin 
Murphy  died,  at  a  grand  old  age,  the  founder  of  a  pros¬ 
perous  race. 

That  Martin  Murphy’s  venture  wTas  full  of  peril,  not¬ 
withstanding  its  fortunate  result,  may  be  learned  from  the 
story  of  the  terrible  disaster  which  overtook  the  Donner 
party,  among  whom  were  some  Irish — one  of  them  now  an 
extensive  proprietor  in  the  county  of  Monterey.  This  party, 
consisting  of  over  eighty  persons,  crossed  the  plain  in  the 
summer  of  1846.  On  the  31st  of  October  they  were  caught 
in  a  snow  storm  in  the  Californian  mountains,  in  which  all 
their  cattle  perished;  and  having  consumed  the  last  of 
their  provisions,  and  even  eaten  the  leather  of  their  saddles 
and  harness,  they  were  driven  to  the  dreadful  extremity  of 
feasting  on  the  remains  of  those  who  had  died  of  cold  and 
hunger.  A  gallant  band  was  despatched  to  their  relief 
from  San  Francisco ;  but,  owing  to  the  high  state  of  the 
, waters  of  the  Sacramento,  and  the  heavy  snowfall  in  the 
mountains,  they  were  delayed  several  wTeeks  before  they 
could  reach  the  sufferers.  On  the  1st  of  March  1847,  relief 
arrived,  but  too  late  for  many  of  their  party ;  for,  out  of  a 
company  of  eighty-one,  not  more  than  forty-five  were  found 
alive,  the  remaining  thirty-six  having  perished  horribly. 
One  of  the  band  sent  to  their  aid,  an  Irishman,  was  in 


268 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


time  to  save  a  poor  famished  and  frenzied  mother  from 
laying  deadly  hands  on  her  own  infant,  to  which  he  gave 
the  shelter  of  his  coat  and  the  warmth  of  his  honest  breast 
all  the  way  to  San  Francisco.  The  Ranch  owner,  who  was 
one  of  the  survivors,  is  now  living  in  San  Juan,  South, 
with  his  wife  and  grown-up  children,  who  shared  the 
privations  of  that  terrific  trip  across  the  plains.  The  old 
gentleman,  though  now  in  his  seventy-fifty  year,  is  in  the 
most  robust  health,  and  looks  years  younger  than  his 
actual  age. 

In  the  following  years  many  families  of  Irish,  as  well  as 
young  single  men,  came  by  every  train  that  then  regularly 
arrived  in  the  fall.  Some  had  means,  others  had  educa¬ 
tion  without  means,  and  more  were  deficient  in  both ;  but 
if  some  lacked  both  of  these  important  advantages,  thej  had 
shrewdness,  intelligence,  vigour  of  body,  and  a  determina¬ 
tion  to  allow  no  obstacle  to  stand  long  in  their  path. 

The  daring  adventure  of  a  poor  labourer  from  the 
county  Meath  affords  a  splendid  instance  of  pluck  and 
perseverance, 

Patrick  Clark,  seeing  so  many  of  his  countrymen  leaving 
Missouri,  and  pushing  on  for  the  new  land,  of  which  such 
promising  accounts  were  given  by  returning  trappers,  wTas 
resolved,  if  possible,  to  imitate  their  example,  and,  like 
them,  better  his  condition.  Pat  had  energy  and  ambition 
sufficient  for  any  undertaking ;  but  to  get  over  between  two 
and  three  thousand  miles  of  ground,  and  with  provisions 
enough  to  support  life  on  the  journey,  required  such  ordi¬ 
nary  appliances  as  a  waggon,  a  team  of  oxen,  and  other 
matters,  all  entirely  beyond  Pat’s  reach.  What  was  he  to 
do?  Go  he  would,  Pat  how?  As  a  landsman  offers  to 
work  his  passage  in  a  ship,  so  did  Pat  Clark  proffer  his 
services  as  a  teamster.  He  was  willing  to  feed  himself, 
and  he  would  not  demand  a  cent  for  his  services.  But  no 
one  required  his  services,  or  would  have  them.  Pat  was 
checked,  not  defeated ;  go  he  was  resolved,  though  he  had 


PAT  CLARK.  BUT  ONE  MORMON. 


209 


to  trudge  every  step  of  the  weary  way.  And  this  he  very 
nearly  did.  He  purchased  a  hand-cart,  in  which  he  placed 
his  blankets,  some  flour,  bacon,  and  a  few  other  neces¬ 
saries,  and  manfully  set  out  on  his  tremendous  journey, 
now  pushing  before  him,  now  dragging  after  him,  his 
hand-cart  with  his  precious  stock  of  provisions ;  and  in  this 
manner  he  had  actually  traversed  1,800  miles,  when  he  was 
overtaken  by  some  compassionate  traveller  on  the  same 
route,  who  gave  the  poor  foot-sore  but  brave-hearted 
Irishman  a  lift  in  his  waggon,  and  enabled  him  to  accom¬ 
plish  the  remainder  of  his  journey  in  a  manner  the  comfort 
of  which  he  could  keenly  appreciate.  The  Meath  man 
settled  down  on  Cache  Creek,  and  was  soon  independent. 
Irishmen  of  his  stamp  cannot  fail  in  what  they  undertake. 

There  was  in  the  year  1847  a  migration  of  a  peculiar 
character,  in  which  the  Irish  had  a  very  small  share  indeed. 
The  ship  ‘Brooklyn’  arrived  at  San  Francisco  in  the  sum¬ 
mer  of  that  year,  with  150  Mormons,  composed  principally 
of  English,  Scotch,  and  Welsh,  with  a  few  Americans.  Of 
the  whole  number  one  wTas  an  Irishman — a  young  fellow 
named  Fergusson,  said  to  be  from  Waterford.  The  party 
pushed  on  to  the  Salt  Lake,  the  single  Irishman  going 
with  them.  ‘What  his  end  in  this  life  was,  or  may  be,  is 
uncertain,’  says  the  friend  who  mentions  the  arrival  of  the 
ship  and  its  godly  freight.  From  this  arrival  California 
gained  nothing  ;  but  the  same  year  came  Stevenson’s  re¬ 
giment  of  New  York  Volunteers,  who  held  possession  of 
the  country  until  it  was  ceded  by  treaty  to  the  United 
States  ;  and  of  this  regiment  not  a  few  of  the  Irish  officers 
and  privates  remained  in  California,  and  in  time  became 
distinguished  citizens  of  the  new  State. 

Shortly  after  was  the  headlong  rush  to  the  recently  dis¬ 
covered  gold-fields,  causing  an  immediate  and  immense 
accession  to  the  population.  In  this  headlong  rush  came 
Irishmen,  not  only  from  Ireland,  but  from  every  part  of 
the  States ;  from  Mexico  as  well  as  the  British  provinces. 


270 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


from  Australia  equally  as  from  England  and  Scotland. 
Animated  by  the  same  passion,  impelled  by  the  same  thirst 
for  gain,  all  nationalities  were  merged  in  one  great  con¬ 
fusion  of  races  and  tongues  ;  while  in  the  universal  scramble 
for  gold,  every  social  distinction  was  trampled  under  foot, 
individual  superiority  depending,  not  on  good  breeding  or 
intellectual  cultivation,  but  on  the  greater  capacity  for  la¬ 
bour,  or  the  tougher  power  of  endurance.  For  a  time  at 
least,  simple  manhood  carried  the  day  against  all  artificial 
gradations  in  the  social  hierarchy  ;  the  hodman  and  the 
doctor,  the  labourer  and  the  lawyer,  standing  upon  exactly 
the  same  level,  provided  that  the  doctor  and  the  lawyer 
happened  to  be  endowed  with  thews  and  sinews  as  strong 
and  as  serviceable  as  those  of  his  brother  gold-seekers,  the 
hodman  and  the  labourer.  In  such  a  competition  there 
was  a  glorious  chance  for  the  humblest  or  most  recently- 
arrived  of  the  Irish  new-comers.  With  the  pick  and  the 
shovel  they  were  a  match  for  any  workers  under  the  sun, 
and  their  luck  was  on  the  average  as  fortunate  as  that  of 
others.  It  was  a  fair  start,  and  no  favour — just  what  best 
suits  the  true  Irishman  :  and  the  result  at  this  moment  is, 
that  one-lialf,  or  nearly  one-half,  of  the  entire  mining  pro¬ 
perty  of  the  country  is  in  the  hands  of  Irishmen  or  the 
sons  of  Irishmen.  The  mine  known  as  the  Allison  Ranch, 
which  is  considered  to  be  one  of  the  richest  in  the  world, 
and  which  last  year  employed  between  500  and  600  workers, 
is  owned  by  five  Irishmen  and  an  American. 

Fortunately  for  their  ultimate  and  permanent  success, 
many  Irishmen  either  failed  in  their  mining  opera¬ 
tions,  became  dissatisfied  with  the  wearisome  monotony  of 
the  daily  drudgery,  or  desired  to  engage  in  some  more 
lucrative  employment ;  and  they  wisely  turned  their  at¬ 
tention  to  what  vras  more  certain  to  reward  steady  industry 
— the  cultivation  of  the  soil.  The  moment,  too,  was  singu* 
larly  propitious.  Ruling  the  height  of  the  gold  fever, 
when  the  one  pursuit  absorbed  almost  every  thought,  all 


niE  IRISH  WISELY  SETTLE  ON  THE  LAND. 


271 


kinds  of  garden  produce  were  sold  at  fabulous  prices ;  and 
even  in  a  year  or  two  after,  12  or  15  cents  for  a  pound  of 
potatoes  was  regarded  as  a  moderate  price  for  that  essential 
article  of  food.  The  hourly  increasing  demand  for  the 
produce  of  the  field  and  the  garden  imparted  a  wonderful 
stimulus  to  agricultural  industry,  to  which  the  Irish 
brought  both  energy  and  experience.  When  they  had 
made  money  in  the  mines,  they  purchased  a  convenient 
piece  of  land,  and  soon  rendered  it  productive  and  profit¬ 
able  ;  or  had  they  been  unlucky  in  their  hunt  after  the 
precious  metal,  they  hired  themselves  as  farm  hands,  and 
being  paid  enormous  wages — wages  which  would  render 
high  farming  in  Europe  an  utter  impossibility — they  in  a 
short  time  accumulated  sufficient  capital  to  purchase  land 
for  themselves.  Employment  was  to  be  had  in  every 
direction  by  those  who  were  willing  to  work ;  and  none 
were  more  willing  than  the  Irish.  Everything  had  to  be 
built  up,  literally  created — cities  and  towns  as  well  as 
communities.  Labour,  which  is  not  estimated  at  its  true 
value  in  older  countries,  where  the  great  work  has  long 
since  been  accomplished,  and  in  which  society  has  its 
grades  and  classes  and  distinctions,  was  highly  prized  and 
reverently  regarded  in  California  ;  for  without  it  nothing 
could  be  done,  where  everything  had  to  be  done  ;  and  the 
humble  Irishman  laid  the  foundation  of  his  own  fortunes 
wrhile  rendering  to  the  infant  State  services  which  were 
priceless  in  their  value.  Happily,  the  cities  and  towns 
did  not  seduce  the  Irish  from  their  legitimate  sphere,  and 
the  dollars  made  in  the  mine,  or  in  ditching  and  digging, 
or  in  hard  toil  of  various  kinds,  were  converted  into  land ; 
and  indeed  writh  such  success  did  they  pursue  this  sound 
policy — which  it  would  be  well  for  the  race  were  it  more 
extensively  adopted  in  America — that  the  one-fourtli  of 
the  farming  of  the  State  of  California  is  in  the  hands  of 
Irishmen.  This  is  remarkably  so  in  the  counties  of  Santa 
Clara,  San  Joaquin,  Marin,  Sonoma,  Almeda,  Contra 


272 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


Costa,  and  Santa  Cruz.  As  agriculturists  and  stock-raisers, 
the  Irish  are  the  leaders  in  almost  every  county  in  the 
State,  more  particularly  those  counties  lying  on  the  sea- 
coast  and  adjacent  to  the  bay  and  waters  of  San  Francisco. 

Inasmuch  as  it  is  more  interesting  to  note  what  the 
humble  man — the  Irish  peasant — has  done  through  his 
unaided  industry,  than  what  the  gentleman  has  accom¬ 
plished  through  the  possession  of  capital,  or  with  the 
advantages  of  education,  an  instance  of  this  nature  may  be 
mentioned. 

There  are  two  townships  in  Marin  county — Tumalis  and 
San  Rafael — largely  owned  and  occupied  by  Irish.  The 
former  of  these  is  as  extensive  and  as  rich  as  any  tract 
of  land  in  the  State,  and  is  almost  exclusively  possessed 
by  Irishmen,  nearly  all  of  whom  a  few  years  ago  were 
labourers ,  working  for  monthly  wages  on  the  ranches  of 
the  old  proprietors,  or  delving  in  the  mines.  They  worked 
and  they  delved  until  they  saved  enough  to  purchase  a 
piece  of  land  ;  and  now  these  men,  who  at  home  were 
poor  peasants,  and,  perhaps,  would  have  been  little  better 
had  they  remained  in  the  old  country,  are  the  proprietors 
of  estates  ranging  from  160  to  1,000  acres  of  the  best  land 
in  California !  Here  are  three  Irishmen,  two  of  them 
‘boys’  from  Tipperary,  who  in  1850  worked  on  Anally 
Ranch  ;  one  of  these  is  the  owner  of  800  acres  of  land  in 
Tumalis,  well-stocked  and  cultivated  ;  and  the  Tipperary 
boys  are  rich  farmers,  and  surrounded  with  every  comfort. 
There  are,  and  will  be,  among  the  children  of  these  suc¬ 
cessful  settlers  those  whose  special  genius,  or  whose  bent 
of  mind  will  naturally  lead  them  to  the  city  and  its 
pursuits  ;  but  their  parents  adopted  the  wisest  and  safest 
course  for  themselves  and  their  descendants — they  planted 
themselves  on  the  soil,  and  thus  laid  the  foundations  of  a 
prosperous  and  independent  race.  Many  of  our  people 
are,  from  special  aptitude,  knowledge  or  experience,  best 
suited  to  a  town  life,  where  alone  they  may  find  employ* 


HOW  THEY  SUCCEEDED  IN  THE  CITIES. 


273 


ment  for  their  trained  skill,  or  a  suitable  field  for  their 
talents  ;  but  the  vast  majority  of  those  who  leave  their 
native  country  for  America,  were  born  on  the  land,  were 
reared  on  the  land,  were  employed  on  the  land  ;  and  the 
land  is  the  right  place  for  them,  whether  in  America  or  at 
home. 

"VVe  may  now  see  what  the  Irish  have  done  in  the  cities 
of  California.  San  Francisco,  the  most  famous  of  the 
fair  cities  of  the  United  States,  will  suffice  as  an  illustration 
of  the  position  and  progress  of  the  children  of  Erin.  It  is 
rather  a  singular  coincidence  that  an  Irishman,  Jasper 
O’Farrell,  laid  out  the  city  which  his  countrymen  did  so 
much  to  build  up  ;  and  that  in  1850,  while  all  was  still  in 
chaos  and  confusion,  and  license  was  the  order  of  the  day, 
another  Irishman,  Malachi  Fallon,  was  called  on  by  a  vote 
of  the  assembled  citizens  to  leave  his  position  at  the 
mines,  and  assume  the  administration  of  the  police  affairs 
of  the  city  ;  which  he  did  with  admitted  success.  It  was 
two  Irishmen — James  and  Peter  Donahue — that  erected 
the  first  foundry  in  San  Francisco,  which  enterprise  led  to 
the  rapid  increase  of  mechanical  industry.  The  same 
firm  projected  the  gas  works  ;  and  with  such  success  was 
this  important  undertaking  crowned,  that  the  stock  of  the 
Company  has  increased  to  six  million  dollars.  The  same 
firm  erected  the  largest  hotel  in  the  city,  at  a  cost  of  more 
than  half  a  million.  The  first  street  railway — from  the 
City  to  the  Mission  of  Dolores — was  projected  by  an  Irish¬ 
man,  Col.  Thomas  Hayes.  Among  the  private  bankers  of 
San  Francisco,  Donahue,  Kelly  &  Co.  take  the  lead  ;  their 
firm,  established  in  1864,  does  a  larger  amount  of  business 
than  that  of  Rothschild,  which  dates  as  far  back  as  1849. 
But  a  still  more  interesting  item — the  first  public  donation 
to  a  charitable  purpose  was  made  by  two  distinguished 
Irishmen,  Don  Timoteo  Murphy,  and  Jasper  O’Farrell, 
who  ‘  donated  ’  the  lot  of  ground  now  occupied  by  the 
Orphan  Asylum,  and  which  is  at  present  worth  200,000 


274 


TI1E  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


dollars.  The  greatest  ovation  ever  offered  by  the  citizens 
to  an  indiv  dual  was  given  to  John  G.  Downey,  an  Irish¬ 
man,  who  for  two  years  ably  filled  the  office  of  Governor 
of  the  State.  Irishmen  held  a  prominent  position  in  the 
convention  by  which  the  constitution  was  formed  ;  and  in 
both  branches  of  the  Legislature  Irishmen,  or  the  sons  of 
Irishmen,  are  to  be  found.  Among  the  largest  holders  of 
city  property,  the  most  extensive  merchants,  the  most  suc¬ 
cessful  men  of  business,  the  ablest  engineers,  the  most 
accomplished  architects,  and  the  most  reliable  contractors, 
are  Irishmen  ;  and  in  all  branches  of  the  legal  profession, 
whether  practising  in  chamber,  or  in  civil  or  criminal 
business  in  courts,  Irishmen  enjoy  an  enviable  repute.* 
In  fact,  as  soon  as  society,  which,  from  the  special  circum¬ 
stances  of  the  country,  had  been  in  a  somewhat  chaotic 
state,  settled  down  into  its  ordinary  grooves,  the  Irish  took 
their  place  among  the  foremost  in  the  battle  of  life  ;  and 
in  its  eager  struggle  for  wealth  and  distinction  they  held 
their  own  with  their  co-labourers  of  every  other  nationality. 

It  may  be  questioned  if  in  any  part  of  the  Union  the 
Irish  of  the  working  classes  are  better  off  in  all  respects 
than  they  are  in  San  Francisco.  The  immense  and  con¬ 
tinuous  employment,  as  well  as  the  liberal  rate  of  remune¬ 
ration,  have  had  much  to  do  with  this ;  but  the  thrifty 
habits  and  admirable  conduct  of  the  Irish  is  the  happy 
result  equally  attributable.  Though  wages  of  all  kinds  are 
liberal  at  present,  and  employment  is  constantly  to  be 
obtained  for  the  greater  portion  of  the  year,  still  the  rate 
of  remuneration  is  not  equal  to  what  it  was  when  the  work 
to  be  done  was  more  pressing,  the  hands  to  do  it  were 

*  Among  the  lawyers  of  Irish  birth  may  be  mentioned  Messrs.  Doyle,  Casserley, 
Byrne,  and  Delany.  The  last-mentioned  gentleman — Charles  M ‘Car thy  Delany 
—is  brother  to  the  Right  Rev.  Dr.  Delany,  Catholic  Bishop  of  Cork.  Mr.  Delany’s 
practice  chiefly  lies  in  conveyancing  ;  and  I  have  been  informed,  on  the  authority 
of  persons  of  great  experience,  as  old  residents  in  California,  that  although  an 
enormous  amount  of  property  has  passed  through  his  hands,  in  his  professional 
capacity,  not  a  dollar  lias  ever  been  lost  to  his  clients  either  through  erroneous 
'id vice,  or  from  a  flaw  or  defect  in  the  titles  which  he  made  out. 


SUCCESSFUL  THRIFT.  IRISH  GIRLS. 


m 


fewer,  and  tlie  mines  attracted  almost  universal  attention. 
From  18-19  to  1853  skilled  labour  ranged  from  G  to  10 
dollars  a  day,  while  unskilled  labour  commanded  from  3 
to  5  dollars  a  day.  Washing  was  then  as  high  as  6  dollars 
per  dozen !  Women  in  domestic  employment  were  paid 
at  from  50  to  70  dollars  a  month.  From  wages  such  as 
these  it  was  not  difficult  for  an  industrious  and  economical 
person  to  save  money.  Many  did  so,  and  bought  lots  on 
the  outskirts  of  the  town,  which  soon  extended  in  every 
direction,  and  so  enhanced  the  value  of  the  property  thus 
honourably  obtained,  as  to  render  its  owners  rich  without 
any  further  exertion  on  their  part.  I  am  happy  to  know 
of  many,  many  instances  of  such  successful  thrift  and  fore¬ 
thought  on  the  part  of  Irishmen  in  every  part  of  the 
United  States,  and  also  in  the  British  Provinces. 

Mechanics  now  earn  from  4  to  5  dollars,  while  labourers 
receive  from  2  to  3  dollars  a  day.  This,  taking  the  present 
value  of  the  dollar,  would  be,  on  an  average,  14s*.  6d.  a  day 
for  the  mechanic,  *  and  8s.  a  day  for  the  labourer.  Being 
so  amply  remunerated,  almost  every  working-man,  whether 
mechanic,  labourer,  or  drayman,  owns  the  house  in  which 
he  lives,  and  the  lot  on  which  it  stands.  Different  indeed 
from  the  state  of  things  in  New  York,  where  the  well-paid 
mechanic,  who  but  rarely  owns  the  house  in  which  he  lives, 
has  to  pay  100  or  120  dollars  a  year  for  two  or  three  rooms 
in  a  tenement  house.  Women  servants  receive  from  20 
to  40  dollars  a  month,  according  to  their  occupation  or 
proficiency,  or  the  class  of  people  in  whose  houses  they 
reside. 

If  any  further  proof  were  required  of  the  condition  of 
the  Irish  in  San  Francisco,  it  is  to  be  had  in  the  facts 
connected  with  the  Hibernian  Savings’  Bank  and  Loan 
Society,  now  nearly  completing  its  eighth  year  of  useful¬ 
ness.  The  deposits  in  this  bank  to  January  21,  1867,  were 
5,241,000  dollars.  I  perceive  by  the  returns  for  I860  that 
the  depositors  receive  interest  at  the  rate  of  eleven  per  cent.. 


276 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


and  that  the  earnings  that  year  amounted  to  244,000  dots. 
But  it  is  more  important  to  learn  that  seven-eighths  of  the 
depositors  are  Irish,  and  that  of  the  amount  deposited  by 
the  Irish  fully  three-fourths  belong  to  the  working  classes, 
including  mechanics,  labourers,  and  girls  in  various  em¬ 
ployments. 

Of  the  Irish  girls  in  America  I  have  spoken  elsewhere ; 
but  any  notice  of  the  race  in  San  Francisco,  in  which 
special  mention  of  the  Irish  girls  of  that  city  was  not  made, 
would  be  most  incomplete.  They  form  a  considerable  and 
valuable  portion  of  its  population,  and  are  deservedly 
esteemed  by  all  classes  of  its  citizens.  They  are  industrious, 
intelligent,  faithful,  generous,  high-spirited,  and  intensely 
devoted  to  their  religion,  of  which  they  are  the  proudest 
ornaments  and  best  examples.  So  justly  esteemed  are 
these  Irish  girls  for  purity  and  honour,  that  some  2,000  of 
them  have  been  well  married — fully  half  of  that  number 
to  men  of  substance  and  good  position.  It  may  be  re¬ 
marked  that  a  considerable  number  of  them  had  been 
tenderly  reared  at  home,  where  they  received  a  fair 
education ;  but  driven  by  circumstances  to  emigrate,  they 
were  of  necessity  obliged  to  accept  even  the  humblest 
situations  in  a  foreign  land.  They  soon,  however,  rose 
above  the  lowly  condition  which  they  dignified  by  their 
intelligence  and  worth,  and  found  in  an  honourable 
marriage  ample  compensation  for  all  their  former  trials. 
It  is  estimated  that  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  the  Irish  girls 
in  domestic  employment  in  San  Francisco  can  read  fairly, 
while  more  than  fifty  per  cent,  can  both  write  and  read  well. 
The  rate  of  wages  for  domestic  employment  ranges  from 
20  to  40  dollars  a  month.  The  average  would  come  to 
00/.  a  year.  Out  of  this  income  they  save  a  certain 
portion,  indulge  their  Celtic  love  of  finery,  gratify  their 
charitable  and  religious  instincts  by  generous  contributions 
to  church,  to  convent,  to  orphanage,  and  to  asylum ;  and 
the  balance  is  devoted  to  the  two-fold  purpose,  with  them 


THE  CIIURCH  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO. 


277 


almost  equally  sacred — to  assist  their  parents  or  aged 
relatives  in  the  old  country,  or  bring  out  a  brother  or  a 
sister  to  their  adopted  home.  It  is  calculated  by  those 
who  have  every  means  of  ascertaining  the  fact,  that  the 
Irish  girls  employed  in  San  Francisco  annually  remit  to 
Ireland,  for  the  purposes  stated,  the  sum  of  270,000 
dollars!  What  eulogium  can  equal  the  mere  mention  of 
this  fact  ? 

Whatever  religious  indifferentism  there  may  be  in  other 
parts  of  America,  there  is  none  in  San  Francisco  among 
its  Irish  Catholic  population.  In  their  hard  struggle  for 
the  good  things  of  this  life  they  did  not  forget  their  inter¬ 
ests  in  the  next ;  and  such  was  the  hberality  with  which  they 
co-operated  with  the  zeal  of  their  pastors,  that,  in  little 
more  than  a  dozen  years  after  the  new  city  began  to  rise 
above  the  huts  and  shanties  that  once  occupied  its  site,  the 
church  property,  including  buildings  and  real  estate,  wTas 
valued  at  2,010,000  dollars.  This  includes  the  cathedral 
and  five  other  churches,  convents,  asylums,  and  hospitals. 
Giving  Catholics  of  other  nationalities  full  credit  for  their 
liberality,  and  allowing  for  the  generous  assistance  afforded 
by  those  of  different  denominations,  it  is  admitted  that 
three-fourths  of  what  has  been  done  for  the  Church  in  the 
city  and  county  of  San  Francisco  has  been  done  by  the 
Irish.  In  fact,  without  them  little  could  have  been  done  ; 
but  with  them  everything  was  possible.  It  is  superfluous 
to  state  that  the  Irish  women  of  San  Francisco  are  famous 
for  their  piety  and  zeal  for  religion — that,  indeed,  is 
characteristic  of  the  race  throughout  America ;  but  it  has 
been  particularly  remarked  by  those  who  have  had  oppor¬ 
tunities  of  observation  in  many  of  the  States,  that  in  few 
places,  if  in  any,  did  they  notice  a  greater  number  of  men, 
in  the  prime  of  life,  and  actively  engaged  in  the  pursuits  of 
business,  so  constant  in  the  performance  of  their  religious 
duties,  as  penitents  in  the  confessional/  and  communicants 
at  the  altar,  than  in  this  noble  city.  With  every  charit- 


278 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


able  and  benevolent  undertaking  men  of  this  class  are 
instinctively  identified,  either  as  leaders  and  promoters,  or 
as  zealous  and  liberal  supporters ;  and  should  they  shrink 
from  a  position  too  prominent  for  their  modesty,  they  more 
than  compensate  for  their  sensitiveness  by  the  abundance 
of  their  generosity. 

As  an  evidence  of  the  progress  and  present  position  of 
the  Irish  in  San  Francisco,  a  few  significant  items  might 
be  quoted  from  the  record  of  the  Assessor  of  Taxes  ;  but  it 
is  sufficient  to  state  that,  with  the  exception  of  four  others, 
not  Irish,  six  Irishmen  are  the  highest  rated  of  its  citizens. 
One  fact,  however,  renders  further  details  unnecessary — 
namely,  that  while  the  Irish  constitute  the  one-fourtli  of 
the  population  of  San  Francisco,  or  30,000  out  of  120,000, 
they  are  considered  to  possess  one-fourtli  of  the  entire 
property  of  the  city,  or  20,000,000  out  of  80,000,000  of 
dollars.  And  yet  of  every  100  Irish  who  came  to  San 
Francisco,  as  to  California  generally,  75  were  either  poor 
or  scantily  provided  with  means.  Few,  indeed,  brought 
any  money  capital  with  them,  but  they  had  energy,  in¬ 
dustry,  with  capacity  for  aU  kinds  of  work  ;  and  though 
they  came  from  a  country  in  which  enterprise  had  little 
existence,  and  industry  not  at  all  times  a  fair  field  or  a 
right  reward,  these  men  and  women  of  Irish  race  soon 
caught  the  spirit  of  the  American — the  right  spirit  for  a 
new  country,  the  genuine  ‘Go-ahead  ’ — that  which  always 
looks  forward  and  never  looks  back. 

With  the  mention  of  a  single  case — of  an  Irishman 
who  was  certainly  one  of  the  seventy-five  per  cent,  who 
brought  with  them  to  the  land  of  gold  but  little  of  the 
world’s  goods — I  may  usefully  conclude  this  sketch  of  the 
Irish  in  California.  It  may  be  given  in  the  words  of  my 
informant,  a  gentleman  who  left  Ireland  for  America  in 
1849.  He  says  :  ‘  There  is  one  circumstance  in  connection 
with  my  coming  to  America  that  has  always,  and  will 
always,  give  me  great  pleasure.  I  mention  it  with  a  view 


WHAT  A  POOR  IRISHMAN  CAN  DO. 


279 


to  enable  you  to  judge  of  what  a  poor  Irishman  can  ac¬ 
complish  in  this  country  with  a  fair  field  before  him.  About 
the  time  I  was  making  up  my  mind  to  come  to  California, 
I  was  then  engaged  in  building  some  public  works  in 
the  town  of  Sligo.  I  had  then  in  my  employment,  and 
for  a  short  time  before,  a  confidential  labouring  man. 
At  that  time  he  had  a  wife  and  six  children  in  the  poor- 
house  in  Tullamor e,  in  the  King’s  County,  to  which  he 
belonged,  having  been  dispossessed  of  a  small  piece  of 
land  in  that  neighbourhood.  When  I  mentioned  to  him 
that  I  was  going  to  California,  he  fell  on  his  knees  and 
implored  me  to  take  him  with  me.  I  was  at  first  thunder¬ 
struck  at  the  idea  of  his  willingness  to  leave  his  family, 
and  go  to  so  distant  a  country,  and  I  so  expressed  myself 
to  him.  But  he  answered  me — “  If  I  remain  here,  I  lose 
my  employment,  and  I,  too,  must  go  into  the  poor-house, 
and  then  all  hope  is  over.”  I  felt  too  keenly  the  truth  of 
his  reply.  I  could  make  no  further  objection,  and  I  told 
him  I  would  take  him  wdtli  me.  In  a  year  after  his  arrival 
in  this  country  he  sent  home  money,  took  his  family  out  of 
the  work-house,  and  sent  his  children  to  school.  They  are 
all  now  here,  his  daughters  well  married,  his  sons  in  good 
situations,  and  the  old  couple,  with  two  of  their  younger 
children,  born  in  California,  living  in  a  comfortable  way  on 
a  good  farm,  from  which  no  bailiff  can  eject  them.  The  sim¬ 
ple  statement  of  the  history  of  this  family  speaks  volumes, 
in  my  mind,  of  what  the  Irish  can  do  in  America. 

In  this  language  speaks  another  Irishman,  a  Californian 
resident  of  long  standing,  whose  name  is  held  in  merited 
respect  by  all  who  know  him  :  ‘  Thus,  in  general  with  but 
a  poor  beginning,  in  a  manner  friendless,  strangers  in  a 
strange  land,  have  our  people  struggled  and  fought,  and 
been  victorious.  Their  bones  will  lie  far  away  from  the 
hallowed  dust  of  their  kindred  ;  yet  every  mountain,  hill¬ 
side,  and  valley  in  this  favoured  land  will  give  evidence  to 
posterity  of  their  toil,  enterprise,  and  success.  Their  foot- 


280 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


prints,  marking  tlie  genius  and  traditions  of  their  race,  their 
love  and  veneration  of  the  old  faith,  and  the  old  country 
from  which  they  wTere  such  unwilling  exiles,  shall  endure  in 
the  land  for  ever.’ 


As  this  sheet  wTas  going  through  the  press,  my  attention 
was  attracted  by  an  article  in  the  Monitor  of  San  Francisco, 
from  which  I  quote  the  concluding  passage,  written,  as  I 
believe,  in  the  right  spirit  : — 

‘It  is  our  interest  to  have  as  many  of  our  countrymen  here  as  possible  ; 
and,  moreover,  we  honestly  believe  no  Other  country  holds  out  such  advan¬ 
tages  for  their  coming.  They  have  not  the  prejudices  of  race  or  religious 
bigotry,  which  exist  in  some  parts  of  the  East,  to  contend  with  ;  unskilled 
labour  is  more  respected  here  than  there,  and  finally,  the  natural  resources 
of  the  country  are  greater,  and  the  population  less  dense  than  in  any  of 
the  Atlantic  States.  Why  cannot  the  Irishmen  of  this  city  form  a  society 
for  diffusing  a  knowledge  of  California’s  resources  among  our  country¬ 
men,  and  communicating  with  employers  throughout  the  State,  for  secu¬ 
ring  immediate  employment  on  their  arrival.  We  almost  feel  a  scruple 
about  encouraging  emigration  from  poor  depopulated  Ireland,  where  the 
fortunes  of  our  race  have  yet  to  be  retrieved;  but  in  England  and  Scot¬ 
land  there  are  nearly  a  million  of  Irishmen  from  whose  ranks  we  could 
easily  obtain  an  annual  immigration  of  many  thousands  by  a  system  such 
as  that  we  have  just  proposed.  We  know  by  experience  the  state  of  feel¬ 
ing  existing  among  our  countrymen  in  Europe,  and  we  believe  that  by  a 
plan  such  as  we  have  described,  an  immense  Irish  population  could  be 
drawn  here,  to  both  their  own  and  our  advantage.  The  Irish  of  Califor¬ 
nia  are  wealthy  and  liberal,  and  surely  such  a  society  as  the  one  we  have 
proposed,  could  be  easily  started  among  them.  Wehope  our  suggestions 
may  turn  the  attention  of  some  of  them  to  the  practical  development  of 
Irish  immigration  from  England  and  the  Eastern  cities.’ 


CHAPTER  XIY. 


Drink  more  injurious  to  the  Irish  than  to  others— Why  this  is  so — 
Archbishop  Spalding's  testimony — Drink  and  Politics — Temper¬ 
ance  Organisations — Hope  in  the  Future. 


ERE  I  asked  to  say  what  I  believed  to  be  the  most 


serious  obstacle  to  the  advancement  of  the  Irish  in 


America,  I  would  unhesitatingly  answer — Drink ;  meaning 
thereby  the  excessive  use,  or  abuse,  of  that  which,  when 
taken  in  excess,  intoxicates,  deprives  man  of  his  reason, 
interferes  with  his  industry,  injures  his  health,  damages 
his  position,  compromises  his  respectability,  renders  him 
unfit  for  the  successful  exercise  of  his  trade,  profession,  or 
employment — which  leads  to  quarrel,  turbulence,  violence, 
crime.  I  believe  this  fatal  tendency  to  excessive  indul¬ 
gence  to  be  the  main  cause  of  all  the  evils  and  miseries 
and  disappointments  that  have  strewed  the  great  cities  of 
America  with  those  wrecks  of  Irish  honour,  Irish  virtue, 
and  Irish  promise,  which  every  lover  of  Ireland  has  had, 
one  time  or  other,  bitter  cause  to  deplore.  Differences 
of  race  and  religion  are  but  as  a  feather’s  weight  in  the 
balance ;  indeed  these  differences  tend  rather  to  add  in¬ 
terest  to  the  steady  and  self-respecting  citizen.  Were 
this  belief,  as  to  the  tendency  of  the  Irish  to  excess  in  the 
use  of  stimulants,  based  on  the  testimony  of  Americans, 
who  might  probably  be  somewhat  prejudiced,  and  therefore 
inclined  to  judge  unfavourably,  or  pronounce  unsparingly, 
I  should  not  venture  to  record  it ;  but  it  was  impressed 
upon  me  by  Irishmen  of  every  rank,  class,  and  condition 


282 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


of  life,  wherever  I  went,  North  or  South,  East  or  West. 

It  was  openly  deplored,  or  it  was  reluctantly  admitted.  I 
rarely  heard  an  Irishman  say  that  his  country  or  his 
religion  was  an  effectual  barrier  to  his  progress  in  the 
United  States.  On  the  contrary,  the  universal  admission 
was  this  :  ‘  Any  man,  no  matter  who  he  is,  what  country 

‘  he  conies  from,  or  what  religion  he  professes,  can  get  on 
‘  here,  if  he  is  determined  to  do  so  ;  and  ha  will*  be  * 
‘respected  by  Americans,  if  he  will  only  respect  himself. 

‘  If  the  Irishman  is  a  sober  man,  there  is  no  fear  of  him— 
‘he  cannot  fail  of  success  ;  but  if  he  is  too  fond  of  the  drink, 
‘it  is  all  up  with  him — he  is  sure  to  fail/  Expressed  in 
these  simple  words,  this  is  the  matured  and  deliberate 
verdict  of  every  experienced  or  observant  Irishman,  from 
the  most  exalted  dignitary  of  the  Catholic  Church  to  the 
humblest  workman  who  maintains  his  family  in  comfort 
by  his  honest  toil. 

The  question  here  naturally  arises, — do  the  Irish  drink 
mere  than  the  people  of  any  other  nationality  in  America  ? 
The  result  of  my  observation  and  inquiries  leads  me  to 
the  conviction  that  they  d not.  How  then  comes  it  that 
the  habit,  if  common  to  all,  i°  so  pernicious  to  them  ? 
There  are  many  and  various  reasons  why  this  is  so.  In 
the  first  place,  they  are  strangers,  and,  as  such,  more 
subject  to  observation  and  criticism  than  the  natives  of  the 
country.  They  are,  also,  as  a  rule,  of  a  faith  different  to 
that  of  the  majority  of  the  American  people ;  and  the  fact 
that  thev  are  so  does  not  render  the  observation  less  keen, 
nor  does  it  render  the  criticism  more  gentle.  Then,  be  it 
constitution,  or  temperament,  or  whatever  else,  excess 
seems  to  be  more  injurious  to  them  than  to  others.  They 
are  genial,  open-hearted,  generous,  and  social  in  their 
tendencies ;  they  love  company,  court  excitement,  and 
delight  in  affording  pleasure  or  gratification  to  their 
friends.  And  not  only  are  their  very  virtues  leagued 


DRINK  MORE  INJURIOUS  TO  IRISH  THAN  OTHERS.  283 


against  them,  but  the  prevailing  custom  of  the  country  is 
a  perpetual  challenge  to  indulgence. 

This  prevailing  custom  or  habit  springs  more  from  a 
spirit  of  kindness  than  from  a  craving  for  sensual  grati¬ 
fication.  Invitations  to  drink  are  universal,  as  to  rank  and 
station,  time  and  place,  hour  and  circumstance ;  they  lit¬ 
erally  rain  upon  you.  The  Americans  are  perhaps  about 
the  most  thoroughly  wide-awake  people  in  the  world,  yet 
they  must  have  an  ‘  eye-opener  ’  in  the  morning.  To  pre¬ 
pare  for  meals,  you  are  requested  to  fortify  your  stomach 
and  stimulate  your  digestive  powers  with  an  ‘appetizer.’ 
To  get  along  in'  the  day,  you  are  invited  to  acccept  the 
assistance  of  a  ‘pony.’  If  you  are  startled  at  the  mention 
of  ‘a  drink,’  you  find  it  difficult  to  refuse  ‘at  least  a  nip.’ 
And  who  but  the  most  morose — and  the  Irishman  is  all 
geniality — can  resist  the  influence  of  ‘a  smile?’  Now 
a  ‘cocktail,’  now  a  ‘cobler’ — here  a  ‘julep,’  there  a 
‘  smasher ;  ’  or  if  you  shrink  from  the  potency  of  the 
‘Bourbon,’  you  surely  are  not  afraid  of  ‘a  single  glass  of 
lager  beer !  ’  To  the  generous,  company-loving  Irishman 
there  is  something  like  treason  to  friendship  and  death  to 
good-fellowship  in  refusing  these  kindly-meant  invitations  ; 
but  woe  to  the  impulsive  Irishman  who  becomes  the  victim 
of  this  custom  of  the  country !  The  Amerioans  drink,  the 
Germans  drink,  the  Scotch  drink,  the  English  drink — all 
drink  with  more  or  less  injury  to  their  health  or  circum¬ 
stances  ;  but  whatever  the  injury  to  these,  or  any  of  these, 
it  is  far  greater  to  the  mercurial  and  fight-hearted  Irish 
than  to  races  of  hard  head  and  lethargic  temperament. 
The  Irishman  is  by  nature  averse  to  solitary  or  selfish  in¬ 
dulgence — he  will  not  ‘boose’  in  secret,  or  make  himself 
drunk  from  a  mere  love  of  liquor  ;  with  him  the  indulgence 
is  the  more  fascinating  when  it  enhances  the  pleasures  of 
friendship,  and  imparts  additional  zest  to  the  charms  of 
social  intercourse.  In  his  desire  to  gratify  his  friends,  and 


284 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


stand  well  with  liis  acquaintances,  lie  is  toe  likely  to  over¬ 
look  the  claims  of  those  at  home — the  wife  and  children, 
who  are  the  sufferers,  if  others  are  the  gainers  which  is 
very  questionable — from  his  generosity  and  his  geniality. 

It  must  be  admitted  that,  in  some  cities  of  America 
— by  no  means  in  all,  or  anything  like  all — the  Irish 
element  figures  unenviably  in  the  police  records,  and 
before  the  inferior  tribunals  ;  and  that  in  these  cities  the 
committals  are  more  numerous  than  they  should  be  in  pro¬ 
portion  to  the  numerical  strength  of  the  Irish  population. 
This  is  undoubtedly  the  case  in  some  instances.  But, 
painful  as  this  fact  is  to  the  pride  of  those  who  love  and 
honour  their  country,  it  is  not  without  a  consolatory  fea¬ 
ture — namely,  the  character  of  the  offences  for  which  the 
Irish  are  made  amenable  to  the  law.  These  offences  are 
irritating  to  the  sensitiveness  of  the  orderly,  the  decorous, 
and  the  law-abiding  —  to  those  whose  position  in  life 
raises  them  above  the  region  in  which  such  offences  have 
their  origin — and  they  are  damaging  to  the  reputation  of 
those  by  whom  they  are  committed  ;  but  they  are  not  of 
a  heinous  nature — not  such  as  cause  a  shudder  to  the 
heart  and  a  chill  to  the  blood.  The  deadly  crimes — the 
secret  poisonings,  the  deliberate  murders,  the  deep-laid 
frauds,  the  cunningly-masked  treachery,  the  dark  villany, 
the  spider-like  preparation  for  the  destruction  of  the  un¬ 
wary  victim — these  are  not  common  to  the  Irish.  Bows, 
riots,  turbulence,  acts  of  personal  violence  perpetrated  in 
2:>assion,  are  what  are  principally  recorded  of  them  in  the 
newspapers  ;  and  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  these  offences 
against  the  peace  and  order  of  the  community,  and  which 
so  deeply  prejudice  the  public  mind,  not  only  against  the 
perpetrators,  but,  what  is  far  worse,  against  the  irrace  and 
country,  are  attributable  to  one  cause,  and  one  cause  alone 
— drink.  The  American  may  drink  from  morning  to 
night  without  injury  to  his  country,  without  peril  to  his 
nationality;  the  German  may  snore  himself  into  insensi- 


ARCHBISHOP  SPALDING’S  TESTIMONY. 


285 


*  bility  in  a  deluge  of  lager  beer,  without  doing  dishonour 
to  Eaderland ;  the  Englishman  and  the  Scotchman  may 
indulge  to  excess — as  both  do  indulge  to  excess — without 
compromising  England  or  Scotland  thereby ;  but  the 
Irishman,  more  impulsive,  more  mercurial,  more  excit¬ 
able,  will  publish  his  indiscretion  on  the  highway,  and 
will  himself  identify  his  nationality  with  his  folly.  Were 
it  possible  to  induce  Irishmen,  if  not  to  abandon  drink  al¬ 
together,  which  is  not  at  all  likely  or  probable,  at  least  to 
be  moderate  in  its  use,  the  result  would  be  a  blessed  one. 
It  were  impossible  to  imagine  any  result  more  blessed, 
more  glorious.  It  would  lift  up  the  Irish  race  in  America 
as  with  a  miraculous  power,  simply  because  Irishmen 
would  then  have  an  opportunity  of  exhibiting,  without  flaw 
or  blemish,  those  qualities  which,  whenever  they  are 
allowed  fair  play,  excite  the  admiration  and  win  the  affec¬ 
tions  of  the  American  people. 

A  dozen  years  since,  while  the  Know  Nothing  fury 
raged  through  the  country,  and  Irish  Catholics,  especially 
the  multitudes  of  emigrants  who  were  then  pouring  into 
the  States  in  numbers  sufficient  to  inflame  the  jealousy  of 
certain  classes  of  Americans,  were  fiercely  assailed  from 
pulpit,  press,  and  platform,  the  venerable  Archbishop 
Spalding  thus  wrote,  in  answer  to  the  charges  made  against 
them  :* — 

But  (it  is  said)  the  Irish  emigrants  are  vicious  and  immoral.  That 
a  portion  of  them  have  their  faults — grievous  and  glaring  faults — we 
do  not  deny ;  but  all  firm  and  impartial  men  will  admit  that  the 
charge  made  against  them  as  a  body  is  obviously  unjust.  They  have 
their  faults,  which  are  paraded  and  greatly  exaggerated  by  the  public 
press ;  but  they  have  also  their  virtues,  which  are  studiously  kept  out 
of  view.  They  have  their  faults ;  but  have  not  the  corresponding 
class  in  our  own  population  their  vices  also  as  great,  if  not  greater, 
than  those  of  the  class  which  is  now  singled  out  as  the  victims  of  a 
virtuous  public  indignation?  They  have  their  vice3,  but  these  are 

*  Introductory  Address  to  Archbishop  Spalding’s  ‘  Miscdlawa.'  John  Murphy 
and  Co.,  Baltimore. 


28G 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


often  faults  of  the  head  more  than  of  the  heart;  of  imprudence  and 
thoughtlessness  more  than  of  deliberate  design  and  malice.  If  you 
look  for  the  accomplished  forger,  the  cold-blooded  midnight  assassin  or 
murderer,  the  man  who  goes  always  armed  with  the  destructive  bowie- 
knife  or  revolver,  ready  for  any  deed  of  blood,  you  will  in  general  have 
to  seek  elsewhere  than  among  the  class  of  Irish  emigrants  whom  you  so 
fiercely  denounce.  • 

The  Irishman’s  vices  are  generally  the  result  of  intemperance,  or  Oj 
the  sudden  heat  of  passion,  sometimes  aroused  by  outrages  upon  his 
country  or  religion;  he  is  easily  misled  by  evil  associates,  but  his  heart 
is  generally  in  the  right  place.  The  Irishman  has  no  concealment  in  hia 
character ;  what  he  is,  he  is  openly  and  before  the  world. 

Since  the  Archbishop  wrote,  events  have  greatly  modi¬ 
fied  the  feelings  then  entertained  towards  the  Irishman  and 
his  creed ;  but  the  enemy  of  the  Irishman’s  own  creation, 
and  his  own  fostering,  is  as  rampant  and  as  deadly  as  ever. 

The  ‘liquor  business’  is  most  pernicious,  either  directly 
or  indirectly,  to  the  Irish.  Requiring  little  capital,  at  least 
to  commence  with,  the  Irish  rush  into  it ;  and  the  temp¬ 
tation  to  excess  which  it  offers  is  often  more  than  the 
virtue  of  the  proprietor  of  the  business  can  withstand.  If 
the  evil  were  confined  to  the  individual  himself,  the  result 
would  be  a  matter  of  comparatively  trifling  consequence : 
but  the  Irishman  attracts  the  Irishman  to  his  saloon  or  his 
bar,  and  so  the  evil  spreads.  Almost  invariably  the  lowest 
class  of  groggery  or  liquor-store — that  which  supplies  the 
most  villanous  and  destructive  mixtures  to  its  unfortunate 
customers — is  planted  right  in  the  centre  of  the  densely- 
crowded  Irish  quarter  of  a  great  city ;  while  too  often  the 
name  on  the  sign-board  acts  as  a  fatal  lure  to  those  who 
quaff  ruin  or  death  in  the  maddening  bowl.  In  America, 
as  in  Ireland,  there  are  men  in  the  trade  who  are  a  credit 
to  their  country,  indeed  an  honour  to  humanity — generous, 
high-spirited,  charitable  and  religious,  who  are  foremost  in 
every  good  work,  and  who  are  never  appealed  to  in  vain  in 
any  cause  of  public  usefulness ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  there 
are  others  whose  connection  with  it  is  injurious  to  them- 


DRINK  AND  POLITICS. 


2  ST 


selves  and  prejudicial  to  their  countrymen.  The  bad 
liquor  of  the  Native  American  or  the  Dutchman  is  far  less 
perilous  to  poor  Pat  than  what  is  sold  by  the  bar-keeper 
whose  name  has  in  it  a  flavour  of  the  shamrock.  A  feeling 
of  clanship,  if  not  a  spirit  of  nationality,  operates  as  an 
additional  inducement  to  the  Irishman,  who  probably 
requires  little  incentive  to  excess,  beyond  his  own  craving 
for  momentary  enjoyment  and  dangerous  excitement. 
Here,  too,  the  working  man  is  seduced  into  that  most 
tempting,  yet  most  fatal  of  all  moral  maelstroms — the 
whirlpool  of  pothouse  politics,  in  whose  accursed  depths  of 
mud  and  mire  many  a  bright  hope  has  been  wrecked, 
many  a  soul  lost.  Here,  fascinated  by  the  coarse  Sirens— 
Drink  and  Politics — many  an  Irishman,  fitted  by  nature 
for  better  things,  has  first  become  a  tool,  then  a  slave, 
then  a  victim  ;  helping  to  build  up  the  fortunes  of  some 
worthless  fellow  on  his  own  ruin,  and  sacrificing  the 
legitimate  gain  of  honest  industry  for  the  expectation  of 
some  paltry  office,  which,  miserable  at  best,  ever  eludes 
his  desperate  clutch.  It  requires  no  little  moral  courage 
on  the  part  of  the  eager  and  impulsive  Irishman  to  avoid 
being  entangled  in  the  fatal  meshes  of  the  pothouse  and  its 
politics  ;  yet  if  he  lias  the  good  fortune  to  resist  the  temp¬ 
tation,  or  the  energy  to  break  through  the  toils,  he  is 
amply  rewarded  in  his  safety  and  independence.  An 
enlightened  interest  in  public  affairs  becomes  the  freeman  ; 
thankless  drudgery  and  inevitable  debasement  are  only 
worthy  of  the  willing  slave. 

Formerly  there  were  inducements  to  excess  which  either 
no  longer  exist,  or  do  not  exist  to  the  same  extent  as  they 
did.  The  principal  inducement  was  the  low  cost  of 
whisky.  Even  of  the  best  quality,  it  was  so  cheap  as  to 
be  within  the  means  of  the  poorest ;  while  whisky  of  an 
inferior,  and  therefore  more  deleterious  description,  was 
to  be  had  at  a  price  almost  nominal.  And  with  this 
•poisonous  stuff — this  rot  to  the  entrails  and  devil  to  the 


288 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


brain — many  thousands  of  Irishmen  were  deliberately  slain 
by  contractors  engaged  in  certain  public  works.  The  sooner 
the  task  was  done  the  more  profit  to  the  contractor.  It  was 
a  free  country,  and  the  white  man  could  not  be  made  to 
work  against  his  will;  but  advantage  was  taken  of  his 
weakness,  and  with  red-hot  whisky  the  liberal  contractor 
lashed  and  goaded  the  toiler  to  superhuman  efforts — before 
which  the  embankment  grew  up,  and  the  huge  earth- 
mound  vanished,  and  the  great  ditch  widened  and  deep¬ 
ened,  as  if  with  the  celerity  of  magic  ;  but  ere  that  work 
was  done — ere  the  train  rattled  along  the  iron  highway, 
the  boat  floated  in  the  canal,  or  the  ship  was  moored  in  the 
dock — there  were  widows  and  orphans  to  mourn  the 
victims  of  a  fatal  weakness,  and  the  reckless  greed  and 
wicked  cruelty  of  their  taskmasters. 

Instigated  by  the  devil  whisky,  the  old  insane  and 
meaningless  jealousies  broke  out — not  the  Catholic  against 
the  Protestant — not  the  Green  against  the  Orange ;  but 
Munster  against  Connaught,  and  Connemara  against  Cork. 
And  out  of  these  shameful  feuds  sprang  riots,  and  blood¬ 
shed,  and  murder,  as  well  as  deep  national  scandal.  The 
Catholic  Church  spared  no  exertions  to  avert  this  evil,  and 
put  an  end  to  a  cause  of  such  just  reproach  ;  but  though 
immense  good  was  done,  and  much  evil  prevented,  the 
active  devil  was  at  times  too  potent  for  its  mild  authority. 
Happily,  these  are  things  of  the  past,  which  must  yet 
be  remembered  with  a  blush  of  sorrow  and  of  shame. 

If,  even  still,  there  is  much  to  deplore,  there  is  more  to 
rejoice  at.  Not  only  are  the  vast  majority  of  Irishmen  in 
all  parts  of  America  as  sober  and  temperate  in  their  habits 
as  any  men  to  be  found  in  any  community  or  country,  but 
in  many  parts  of  the  United  States  the  Irish  enjoy  the 
reputation  of  being  among  the  best,  the  most  orderly,  and 
the  most  sober  portion  of  the  population.  And  where  this 
happy  state  of  things  exists,  the  Irish  of  the  working-classes 
are  sure  to  possess  property,  to  have  their  ‘house  and  lot, 


TEMPERANCE  ORGANISATION. 


289 


and  to  be  frugal,  thrifty,  and  saving.  Nor,  as  I  can  testify, 
are  the  Irish  without  meeting  with  ready  and  generous 
appreciation  from  Americans  of  long  descent.  ‘The  Irish 
here,  sir,  are  amongst  our  best  citizens ;  they  are  sober 
and  industrious,  moral,  orderly,  and  law-abiding — sir,  they 
are  a  credit  to  their  native  country/  This  testimony  I 
was  proud  to  hear  in  various  States.  But,  unhappily,  in 
some  of  the  large  cities,  the  evil  habit  of  the  minority 
casts  a  certain  amount  of  discredit,  however  unjustly,  on 
their  Irish  populations. 

In  every  large  city  and  in  most  of  the  considerable  towns 
of  America  there  is  a  temperance  organisation,  which  oilers 
the  usual  advantages  to  those  who  belong  to  it.  On  Mon¬ 
day,  March  18th,  I  had  an  admirable  opportunity  of  wit¬ 
nessing  the  display  made  by  the  temperance  societies  of 
New  York  ;  and  rarely  did  I  behold  a  spectacle  which  was 
in  itself  so  cheering  and  consolatory,  or  of  which  I  felt 
more  truly  proud.  In  the  hey-day  of  the  temperance  move¬ 
ment  in  Ireland  I  had  more  than  once  seen  processions 

-A. 

quite  as  brilliant  and  imposing,  after  their  fashion,  as  that 
which  I  scanned  with  eager  scrutiny  in  New  York.  There 
was  therefore  nothing  novel  in  the  display,  whether  in  its 
banners,  its  decorations,  its  music,  or  even  its  number's. 
What  did  delight  me — what  I  know  delighted  others,  who, 
like  myself,  had  a  national  interest  in  the  festival  of  the 
day — was  to  witness  so  large  a  body  of  Irishmen,  and  the 
children  of  Irishmen,  presenting  in  the  face  of  the  Amcri 
can  people  a  striking  and  beneficial  example  of  courage 
and  good  sense  to  their  own  race ;  in  a  city,  too,  which 
probably  has  within  it  more  of  risk  and  danger  to  sobriety 
than  any  other  city  in  the  States.  Their  dress  was  admir¬ 
able,  even  conspicuous  where  respectability  of  attire  was 
the  rule ;  and  there  was  that  in  their  air  and  manner  and 
carriage  which  elicited  universal  admiration,  and  deeply 
gratified  the  Irishmen — many  of  them  the  most  eminent 

in  the  city— by  whom,  on  that  occasion,  I  happened  to  be 

13 


290 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


surrounded.  In  that  enormous  procession,  roughly  esti¬ 
mated,  at  30,000  persons,  men  and  boys,  there  were 
thousands  of  sober  self-respecting  men  who  were  not 
members  of  a  temperance  organisation — not  { teetotallers 
but  there  were  also,  I  must  admit,  not  a  few  who  displayed 
in  their  maundering  looks  and  tottering  gait  an  over-zealous 
devotion  to  the  Patron  Saint  of  their  native  land. 

I  was  much  amused  at  receiving  a  letter  from  an  influ¬ 
ential  member  of  one  of  the  most  prosperous  of  the 
temperance  societies  of  New  York,  in  which  the  writer 

proudly  claimed  for  his  body  prominent  distinction,  on 

*  * 

these  very  cogent  grounds — that  not  only  had  they  a  con- 
siderable  number  of  members  belonging  to  their  society, 
but  that  their  members  owned  more  property,  had  more 
money  in  the  bank  and  in  profitable  investments  ;  had 
built  more  houses,  and  of  a  superior  description ;  had 
educated  their  children  better,  and  advanced  them  more 
successfully  in  life,  and  held  a  higher  social  position,  than 
the  members  of  any  other  society  in  New  York  ;  though 
the  writer  had  no  notion  of  disparaging  any  of  them  'what¬ 
ever.  Here  was  a  volume  of  sermons  embodied  in  these 
few  words  ;  and  being  the  words  of  a  good  Irishman,  I 
commend  them  to  his  countrymen  wherever  they  may  be. 

I  was  thus  addressed  in  a  Western  city  by  an  Irishman 
who  is  himself  a  credit  to  his  country.  Upright,  intelli¬ 
gent,  and  self-respecting,  he  is  one  of  those  men,  of 
whom  there  are  thousands  in  America,  who  would  not 
compromise  the  national  honour  in  his  own  person  for 
any  earthly  consideration.  He  said  : 

‘I  have  one  request  to  make  of  you,  and  I  am  certain 
you  will  comply  with  my  humble  but  earnest  prayer  :  and 
that  is,  to  place  before  the  eyes  of  the  poor  intending 
emigrant,  as  of  those  who  have  their  interest  at  heart,  and 
whose  advice  is  likely  to  be  taken  by  our  people,  the  terrible 
dangers  of  intemperance  in  this  country.  Implore  of  them, 
in  the  name  of  everything  pure  and  lovely  in  Heaven  and 


HOPE  IN  THE  FUTURE. 


20  i 


on  eartli,  to  make  up  their  minds,  as  good  Christians,  to 
leave  off  the  use  of  intoxicating  drinks  before  starting  for 
this  country — otherwise  they  are  not  wanted  here.  Let 
them  stay  at  home,  where,  even  if  of  dissipated  habits, 
they  can  meet  some  good  Samaritan  who  wdll  extend  to 
them  the  hand  of  friendship  in  distress  ;  for  here  the  man 
inclined  to  drink  will  meet  with  nothing  but  bad  whisky 
and  a  pauper’s  grave,  and  not  one  to  say  “Lord  have 
mercy  upon  him!”  This  is  my  request  of  you,  and  I  make 
it  in  the  interest  of  our  common  country,  because  I  have 
too  good  reason  to  know  that  drink  is  the  bane  of  our 
people.’ 

With  the  influence  of  sound  religious  teaching,  whose 
tendency  leads  to  self-government  and  control — the  influ¬ 
ence  of  the  Church,  which  is  every  day  drawing  her 
children  more  within  the  reach  of  her  salutary  authority — 
the  influence  of  organisations  through  which  even  the  de¬ 
spairing  outcast  may  learn  a  lesson  of  hope,  of  moral  and 
social  redemption, — with  these  influences  steadily  acting  on 
the  Irish  in  America,  w^e  may  look  with  confidence  to  the 
wiping  away  of  a  reproach  which  is  due  to  the  folly  and 
madness  of  the  few  rather  than  of  the  many  ;  as  also  to  the 
removal  from  the  path  of  the  Irishman  of  one  of  the  most 
fatal  obstacles  to  his  advancement  in  a  country  for  which 
he  is  eminently  suited  by  qualities  that,  if  not  marred  or 
perverted  by  this  one  terrible  vice,  must  lead  him  to  suc¬ 
cess  in  every  walk  and  department  of  life,  whether  public 
or  private. 


292 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


Poor  Irish  Gentility — Honest  labour — The  Miller's  son — Well- 
earned  Success — No  poor  Irish  Gentility  here — A  self-made  Man 
— How  he  became  a  Master  Baker — The  Irish  don’t  do  them¬ 
selves  Justice — How  they  are  regarded — Scotch  Irish. 

]  HERE  is  another  evil  which  overtakes  Irishmen  of  a 


JL  certain  class  in  the  new  world ;  it  may  be  called  the 
Micauber  evil — ‘  waiting  for  something  to  turn  up.’  The 
delay  of  a  week  may  be  the  destruction  of  the  young  man 


who  comes  out  to  America  with  the  highest  hopes  of  doing 


something,  he  knows  not  what,  and  getting  on,  he  knows 
not  how.  In  mere  delay  there  is  danger  quite  sufficient ; 
but  woe  to  him  if  he  bring  with  him  the  faded  gentility  of 
poor  Ireland  to  a  country  utterly  without  sympathy  for  such 
threadbare  nonsense.  The  Irishman  who  brings  with  him 
across  the  ocean  this  miserable  weakness  travels  with  the 
worst  possible  compagnon  de  voyage.  In  America  there 
is  no  disgrace  in  honest  labour.  It  was  labour  that  made 
America  what  she  is  ;  it  is  labour  that  will  make  her  what 
bhe  is  destined  to  be — the  mightiest  power  of  the  earth. 
But  that  pestilent  Irish  gentility,  which  has  never  appre¬ 
ciated,  perhaps  never  could  appreciate,  this  grand  truth  ; 
that  Irish  gentility,  the  poorest  and  proudest,  the  most 
sensitive  and  the  most  shamefaced,  of  all  such  wretched 
shams — that  weakness  of  indigenous  growth  has  brought 
many  a  young  Irishman  to  grief  and  shame.  Advised, 
by  those  who  knew  America  well,  to  Hake  anything 
or  to  ‘do  anything’  that  offered,  poor  Irish  gentility 
could  not  stoop  to  employment  against  which  its  high 


HONEST  LABOUR 


203 


stomached  pride  revolted — poor  Irish  gentility  was  ‘  never 
used  to  that  kind  of  thing  at  home  ;  ’  so  poor  Irish  gentil¬ 
ity  wandered  hopelessly  about,  looking  in  vain  for  what 
would  suit  its  notions  of  respectability;  until  poor  Irish 
gentility  found  itself  with  linen  soiled,  hat  battered,  clothes 
seedy,  boots  unreliable,  and  spirits  depressed — so  dowm, 
fatally  down,  poor  Irish  gentility  sank,  until  there  was  not 
strength  or  energy  to  accept  the  work  that  offered;  and 
poor  Irish  gentility  faded  away  in  some  dismal  garret  or 
foul  cellar,  and  dropped  altogether  out  of  sight,  into  the 
last  receptacle  of  poor  gentilities — the  grave  of  a  pauper.  I 
heard  a  good  Irish  lady  describe  an  awful  tragedy  of  this 
nature  ;  and  as  she  told  the  melancholy  tale,  her  face  grew 
pale  at  its  remembrance.  Called  too  late  to  save  one  who 
had  been  her  friend  in  youth,  she  was  in  time  to  close  her 
eyes  as  she  lay  in  her  last  mortal  agony  on  the  bare  floor 
of  a  back  room  in  a  tenement  house  in  New  York.  Meek, 
gentle,  well-educated  and  accomplished,  the  poor  exile  who 
thus  died  on  that  bare  floor,  with  scarcely  sufficient  rags  to 
hide  her  wasted  limbs,  was  the  victim  of  the  husband’s 
false  pride  and  morbid  sensitiveness — of  his  poor  Irish  gen¬ 
tility.  Through  every  stage  of  the  downward  process  he 
rapidly  passed,  dragging  down  with  him  his  tenderly  nur¬ 
tured  wife,  until  the  sad  ending  was  that  death  of  hunger 
on  those  naked  boards. 

There  must  be  no  hesitation,  no  pause,  in  a  country  in 
which  there  is  no  hesitation,  no  pause,  no  rest — whose  life 
is  movement,  whose  law  is  progress.  The  golden  rule  to 
be  observed  by  the  new-comer  is  to  accept  any  employ¬ 
ment  that  offers,  and  refuse  nothing  that  is  honest  and  not 
morally  degrading  :  and  from  the  lowest,  the  humblest,  the 
poorest  positions,  any  commonly  well-educated  man  can 
rise,  if  he  only  determine  to  do  so.  Many  of  the  greatest, 
highest,  proudest  men  in  America  have  risen  from  the  axe 
and  the  spade — from  labour  of  one  kind  or  other ;  and  in 
the  estimation  of  every  honourable  mind,  they  are  the 


294 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


greater,  tlie  higher,  and  the  prouder,  because  of  thei? 
having  done  so.  Americans  teach  many  useful  lessons  to 
the  nations  of  the  Old  World.  Progress  is  not  the  only 
principle  happily  illustrated  by  them  ;  ‘  recuperation  ’  is 
even  better  understood.  If  an  American  fail  in  business, 
his  failure  is  no  obstacle  to  his  ‘  trying  again ;  ’  as  if  a  man 
happen  to  fall  in  the  street,  there  is  no  reason  why  he 
should  not  prick  himself  up,  rub  the  dust  or  mud  from  his 
clothes,  and  continue  on  his  way.  The  American  may  fail 
once,  or  twice,  or  even  thrice ;  but  he  does  not  therefore 
sit  down  in  despair — with  him,  as  long  as  there  is  life  there 
is  hope.  It  might  be  curious  to  speculate  how  many  emi¬ 
nent  merchants,  now  millionaires,  or  on  the  high  road  to 
that  goal  of  the  business  man’s  ambition,  owe  their  present 
position  to  the  ‘  never  say  die  ’  policy — who,  so  long  as  they 
had  brains  or  health,  would  not  give  in.  To  *  begin  again  ’ 
is  not  the  same  desperate  thing  in  America  that  it  is  in 
England  or  Ireland ;  simply  because  so  many  men  have 
begun  at  the  lowest,  are  beginning  at  the  lowest,  must 
begin  at  the  lowest ;  and  there  is  no  shame  attaching  to 
the  lowest  in  a  country  where  honest  labour — toil  in  the 
sweat  of  the  brow — is  honourable,  not  degrading,  To  our 
mind,  there  is  something  more  than  healthful  and  hopeful 
in  this  policy — it  is  manly  and  noble.  Poor  Irish  gentility 
cannot  comprehend,  or  will  not  accept  it ;  but  Irish  pluck 
and  energy  will.  Of  this  Irish  pluck  and  energy  I  could 
give  many  illustrations ;  but  I  must  content  myself  with 
a  few. 

I  had  not  been  long  in  the  States  when,  in  a  Western 
city,  I  met  the  subject  of  the  following  true  tale. 

There  landed  on  the  levee  of  New  Orleans  on  the  2Gtli 
of  January,  1854,  a  well-built,  bright-looking,  high- 
spirited  young  Irishman,  from  the  neighbourhood  of  a 
town  in  the  county  Poscommon.  The  son  of  a  miller,  he 
had  received  that  ordinary  kind  of  education  which  left 
much  to  be  done  by  the  pupil  in  after  life.  Save  health, 


THE  MILLER’S  SON. 


295 


strength,  and  a  fixed  resolution  to  push  his  way  in  the 
world,  the  son  of  the  Irish  miller  had  nothing  when  he 
stood  on  the  banks  of  the  mighty  Mississippi.  Young 
O’B— —  did  not  lose  much  time,  or  wear  out  his  boot- 
leather,  in  hunting  after  employment  that  would  har¬ 
monise  with  his  notions  of  Irish  gentility — for  the  simple 
reason  that  he  had  not  brought  such  a  commodity  with 
him  from  Roscommon.  Like  a  sensible  young  Irishman, 
who  had  the  world  before  him,  he  took  the  first  work  that 
offered.  With  the  savings  of  a  few  "weeks’  labour  in  his 

pocket,  he  paid  his  passage  to  St.  Louis.  Work  was  scarce 

% 

in  that  city  at  the  moment,  so  he  determined  not  to  lose  his 
time  there,  but  push  on.  From  St.  Louis  he  proceeded  to 
the  city  in  which  he  hoped  to  find  something  to  do  ;  and  as 
he  left  the  steamer,  in  which  he  had  taken  a  deck  passage, 
his  entire  fortune  consisted  of  three  silver  dollars.  Fail¬ 
ing  to  find  work  of  any  kind  in  this  city,  he  resolved  to 
try  what  he  could  make  of  the  country ;  for  being  a  sober 
lad,  and  having  his  bright  Irish  wits  about  him,  he  deter¬ 
mined  that  he  should  not  ‘ hang  about  the  town.’  He 
went  some  eight  or  ten  miles  into  the  country,  and  found 
work  as  a  farm  hand.  For  six  weeks  he  honestly  did  his 
best  to  earn  his  pay ;  but  his  hands  becoming  sore  from 
the  labour,  he  was  forced  to  give  in.  Returning  to  the 
town,  the  Roscommon  lad  was  employed  by  the  principal 
hotel  of  the  jilace  to  bring  water  to  the  stable  with  a  horse 
and  cart.  At  this  humble  employment  he  was  engaged, 
when,  happening  to  see  a  small  man  set  upon  by  a  great 
savage,  he  came  to  the  rescue  of  the  former,  and  prostrated 
the  Goliath.  The  Goliath  was  treacherous  as  well  as  brutal, 
and  rushing  into  his  house,  which  was  near  at  hand,  he 
possessed  himself  of  a  sharp  weapon,  with  which  he  stabbed 
the  young  Irishman,  of  whom  he  very  nearly  made  an 

end.  For  six  months  of  pain  and  weariness  poor  O’R - 

was  unable  to  earn  a  dollar.  But  he  had  brought  with 
him  from  Roscommon  a  splendid  constitution,  and  ‘fine 


296 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


healing  flesh.’  When  he  was  on  his  legs  again  he  was 
taken  into  the  office  of  the  hotel,  a  position  for  which  his 
intelligence  suited  him.  The  place  was  a  very  good  one,  as 

a  stepping-stone  to  something  better ;  and  when  O’B - 

quitted  it,  which  he  did  in  twenty  months,  it  was  with 
900  dollars  in  his  pocket,  haying  saved  every  cent  that  he 
could  possibly  lay  by.  To  be  a  lawyer  was  his  ambition ; 
and  he  was  bright,  and  quick,  and  clear,  with  a  fervent 
tongue,  and  a  good  tough  brain  withal.  For  two  years 
and  three  months  he  studied  hard  at  the  desk  and  in  the 
courts,  and  was  then  admitted  into  the  profession  after  a 
creditable  examination.  He  then  practised  with  an  emi¬ 
nent  lawyer  in  the  great  city  in  which  he  had  studied ; 
and  with  the  same  eminent  lawyer  he  remained  until  the 
summer  of  1860.  Then  he  turned  his  face  once  more  to 
the  smaller  city  in  which  he  had  humbly  toiled  and  faith¬ 
fully  served ;  and  here  he  determined  to  set  up  as  an 
attorney  and  counsellor.  His  Wealth  was  then  all  in  the 
brain  and  the  will,  and  his  exchequer  was  low  indeed. 
He  contrived,  however,  to  get  an  office,  the  furniture  of 
which  consisted  of  a  small  table  and  a  single  chair — -in¬ 
tended  for  the  joint  yet  separate  use  of  client  and  of 
counsel;  while  the  library  was  comprehended  in  a  single 
volume  of  the  statutes,  ‘loaned’  to  him  by  a  friend.  It 
was  not  a  very  splendid  beginning,  nor  was  his  office  a 
palace  of  luxury;  but  there  was  the  right  stuff  in  the 
young  practitioner.  His  first  case  was  remarkable,  not  so 
much  from  its  being,  what  it  was,  a  bad  one — a  ‘hard 
case  ’ — or  for  its  success,  as  for  an  incident  with  which  ifc 
was  attended.  The  opposing  counsel,  who  knew  the  his¬ 
tory  of  his  ‘learned  friend,’  finding  his  young  antagonist 
pushing  him  to  the  wall,  and  losing  temper,  had  the  good 
taste  and  delicacy  to  suggest  that  his  ‘learned  friend’  was 
more  conversant  with  the  manipulation  of  a  trunk  or 
portmanteau  than  with  the  handling  of  a  legal  argument ; 
to  which  taunt  the  young  Irishman  replied  in  a  manner 


WELL-EARNED  SUCCESS. 


297 


at  once  playful  and  emphatic — namely,  by  hurling  a  great 
glass  inkstand  right  in  the  face  of  his  £  learned  friend, 
down  whose  obscured  features  a  copious  stream  of  ink, 
artistically  blended  with  a  rosier  hue,  rolled  and  lost 
itself  in  the  full  bosom  of  a  shirt  which  a  second  beforo 
had  shone  with  dazzling  lustre.  It  is  not  given  to  every 
man  to  make  a  sensation  in  court  ;  but  the  effect  of  this 
covp  was  eminently  successful.  The  judge,  representing 
the  majesty  of  the  Law,  which  affected  to  be  deeply 
offended  and  seriously  outraged,  solemnly  imposed  a  fine 
of  fifty  dollars  ;  which  fine  was  less  solemnly  remitted. 
The  tide  of  fortune  began  to  set  in ;  and  in  few  days  after 
his  double  success,  alike  of  ink-bottle  and  argument,  the 
rising  lawyer  had  the  courage  to  go  in  debt  for  four  chairs, 
and  to  have  his  office  washed  out  on  credit.  But  in  five 
years  after  the  delivery  of  the  retort  courteous  referred  to, 

O’B -  received  an  absolute  fee  of  1,000  dollars  for  the 

conduct  of  an  important  case,  and  a  conditioned  fee  of 
'5,000  dollars — in  other  words,  one  thousand  dollars  win  or 
lose,  and  five  thousand  in  case  he  wTon ;  and  he  did  win 
— that  is,  he  got  a  young  gentleman  of  good  family  safely 
through  a  little  scrape  winch  might  have  had  a  fatal  ter¬ 
mination.  The  four  chairs,  long  since  paid  for,  are  still 
in  the  office  ;  and  the  loaned  copy  of  the  statutes,  after¬ 
wards  presented  as  a  tribute  of  admiration,  expanded  into 
a  library  that  is  fast  encroaching  on  the  last  few  unoc¬ 
cupied  feet  of  wall.  In  18G2  and  in  1863  O’B -  was 

member  of  the  State  Legislature,  and  at  the  election  for 
Congress  previous  to  the  time  I  met  him,  he  was  a  candi¬ 
date  on  the  Democratic  ticket.  There  is  no  mystery,  no 
disguise  about  O’B - or  his  career :  for  at  the  State  Con¬ 

vention  the  gentleman — a  State  Senator — who  nominated 
him,  made  the  leading  facts  which  I  have  now  narrated, 
the  best  claim  to  the  sympathy  and  respect  of  his  audi« 
once,  who,  like  the  subject  of  his  eulogium,  wrere,  most  of 
them  at  least,  self-made  men.  I  have  seen  O’B - ’s 


298 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


home  library,  and  I  can  answer  that  not  only  is  it  choice 
and  comprehensive,  but  that  it  is  well  employed  by  the 
successful  lawyer,  who,  when  a  lad  of  twenty,  worked  man¬ 
fully  on  the  levee  of  New  Orleans.  Possibly  the  moral 
of  the  story  might  be  found  in  these  words,  which  I  heard 
him  use — ‘Thank  Heaven !  I  never  was  drunk  in  my  life.’ 

One  evening  in  a  great  Eastern  city  I  met  in  social  in¬ 
tercourse  some  five-and-twenty  or  thirty  Irishmen  from 
all  parts  of  Ireland,  every  one  of  wThom  was  either  pro¬ 
gressing,  prosperous,  or  rich  :  and  all,  without  an  exception, 
owed  everything  they  possessed  to  their  own  energy  and 
good  conduct.  During  the  evening  a  scrap  of  paper  was 
handed  to  me,  on  which  was  written  the  words — ‘  There 
are  more  than  four  millions  and  a  half  of  dollars  repre¬ 
sented  at  this  table — all  made  by  the  men  themselves,  and 
most  of  it  within  a  few  years.’  The  Irishman  who  sat 
next  to  me  was  the  possessor  of  a  twelfth  of  the  whole. 
He  had  not  been  more  than  sixteen  years  in  the  country, 
and  until  some  years  after  he  landed  in  America  he  had 
no  connection  whatever  with  mercantile  affairs.  A  few  dol¬ 
lars  and  the  clothes  in  which  he  stood — such  was  his  capi¬ 
tal.  He  had  no  poor  Irish  gentility  to  embarrass  him; 
and  at  the  head  of  a  dray-horse  he  might  be  seen  soon 
after  his  arrival,  his  frock-coat  not  altogether  suited  to  his 
rough  employment,  and  his  boots  fatally  damaged  in  sole 
and  upper.  But  in  a  short  time  he  made  and  saved 
money,  and  he  went  from  one  thing  to  another,  mounting 
step  after  step  of  the  commercial  ladder ;  until  he  now  is 
partner  in  one  of  the  finest  concerns  of  the  city,  and 
enjoys  the  highest  repute  for  probity  and  enterprise.  At 
the  same  table  sat  one  who,  a  native  of  my  own  city,  had 
been  earning  at  home  four  shillings  a  week — eigktpence  a 
day — at  a  certain  employment,  but  who  wras  then  the 
owner  of  a  prosperous  establishment,  in  which  several 
hundreds  were  profitably  employed.  Intelligence,  sheer  in¬ 
dustry,  and  good  conduct, — these  the  secret  of  his  success 


NO  POOR  IRISH  GENTILITY  HERE. 


299 


In  the  same  city  I  know  an  Irishman  who  holds  perhaps 
as  prominent  and  responsible  a  position  as  any  man 
within  its  walls,  he  having  the  management  of  one  of  the 
most  splendid  concerns  in  America.  He  had  a  situation 
in  Ireland  of  some  100?.  a  year  on  a  public  work ;  but 
being  a  young  man  of  good  education,  clear  bfcain,  and 
magnificent  health,  he  thought  he  could  do  better  in 
America.  There  was  not  a  bit  of  false  gentility  about 
him,  yet  he  sought  to  procure  a  situation  at  least  as  re¬ 
spectable  as  that  to  which  he  had  been  accustomed ;  but 
the  moment  the  last  sovereign  was  turned  into  dollars, 
and  the  dollars  were  rapidly  vanishing,  he  determined  he 
would  not  be  idle  a  day  longer.  ‘  I  saw,’  he  said,  ‘  there 
was  nothing  for  it  but  work,  and  I  was  resolved  to  take 
anything  that  offered,  I  didn’t  care  what.  I  spent  a  por¬ 
tion  of  the  morning  knocking  about  here  and  there,  trying 
to  get  such  employment  as  I  would  prefer ;  but  it  was 
not  to  be  had.  I  was  too  late,  or  they  didn’t  want  me. 
‘  Come,’  said  I  to  myself,  ‘  there  must  be  an  end  of  this  kind 
of  thing ;  the  way  to  get  along  is  to  begin  with  something, 
so  I  turned  into  the  first  livery-stable  I  came  to,  and  asked 
the  owner  did  he  require  a  hand  to  rub  down  his  horses : 
he  said  he  did,  and  that  he  would  willingly  employ  me. 
‘  All  right,’  said  I ;  ‘so  1  stripped  off  my  coat,  turned  up 
my  sleeves,  and  set  to  work.  And  I  assure  you  I  slept 
well  that  night.  I  was  not  long  there,  having  soon  found 
what  suited  me  better — and  here  I  am  now,  thank  God.’ 

As  I  was  leaving  a  city  ‘  down  South  ’  I  wras  accompanied 
some  way  in  the  ‘  cars  ’  by  a  number  of  my  countrymen 
— every  man  of  them  prosperous,  respectable,  and  c  self- 
made.’  Near  me  was  a  gentlemen  rather  advanced  in 
years,  of  the  kindest  expression,  the  softest  voice,  and  eyes 
mildly  beaming  through  a  pair  of  gold-rimmed  glasses. 
A  thorough  American,  he  was  no  less  a  devoted  Irishman. 
I  was  speaking  of  the  climate,  and  its  effect  on  the  con¬ 
stitution  and  health  of  our  people,  when  he  said,  in  liis 


300 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


soft  voice — ‘My  dear  sir,  it  all  depends  on  a  man’s 
prudence  or  imprudence.  Tlie  climate  is  dangerous  to 
those  who  are  foolish — who  drink  to  excess.  Any  climate 
would  be  injurious  to  them;  but  this  climate,  though 
much  talked  against,  is  not  dangerous  to  the  sober  man. 
My  dear  sir,  there  is  an  instance  of  it  in  my  own  person 
— I  worked  on  a  canal  for  three  years,  often  up  to  my 
waist  in  water — ’ 

‘  You,  sir  !  ’  I  could  not  help  exclaiming. 

‘  Yes,  my  dear  sir  ’ — his  eyes  mildly  beaming  at  me 
through  the  gold-rimmed  glasses,  and  his  voice  catching  a 
softer  intonation — ‘Yes,  my  dear  sir,  I  was  often  up  to 
my  hips  in  water ;  and  at  the  end  of  the  time  I  had  my 
health  perfectly,  and  a  considerable  sum  saved — quite 
enough  to  begin  with.  I  kept  my  health,  because  I  never 
drank — while  hundreds  of  our  countrymen  were  literally 
dying  around  me,  I  may  say  withering  in  my  sight,  all 
the  result  of  their  own  folly.  Poor  fellows !  the  tempta¬ 
tion  was  great,  and  the  whisky  was  to  be  had  for  next  to 
nothing.’ 

‘But,’  I  said,  ‘you  surely  had  not  been  used  to  rough 
work  of  that  kind  ?  ’ 

*  Y  ery  true,  my  dear  sir ;  but  what  was  I  to  do  ?  I 
knew  I  had  come  to  a  country  in  which  no  man — no 
stranger  certainly — could  be  idle  without  great  injury  to 
himself  ;  and  as  I  had  no  immediate  opportunity  of  getting 
such  employment  as  I  myself  would  have  preferred,  and 
was  accustomed  to,  why,  my  dear  sir,  I  took  that  which 
offered.  And,  on  the  whole,  I  am  not  sorry  for  it.’ 

My  friend  then  branched  off  into  the  adaptability  of 
man  to  various  climates;  and,  taking  a  wide  and  rather 
comprehensive  range  of  inquiry,  he  hurried  me  through 
several  countries  of  the  world,  at  the  same  time  broaching 
a  number  of  plausible  theories,  evidently  favourites  of  his. 
As  I  grasped  his  honest  hand,  and  felt  the  mild  light  of 
those  kindly  eyes  beaming  at  me  through  the  gold-rimmed 


A  SELF-MADE  MAN. 


301 


spectacles,  1  pictured  to  myself  that  man  of  soft  voice  and 
cultivated  mind,  working  up  to  his  hips  in  mud  and  slush, 
and  the  Southern  sun  raining  its  fierce  fire  on  his  head. 
But  there  he  was,  not  a  bit  the  worse  for  his  hard  work — 
on  the  contrary,  both  personally  and  philosophically  proud 
of  what  he  had  gone  through. 

Two  instances  of  energy  and  determination  must  close  a 
list  which  could  be  added  to  any  extent. 

A  great  strapping  Irishman — who  would  be  called  at 
home  ‘  a  splendid  figure  of  a  man  ’ — landed  at  Castle 
Garden  about  fifteen  years  since.  He  neither  knew  how 
to  write  nor  read,  but  he  was  gifted  with  abundant  natural 
quickness,  and  he  was  full  of  energy  and  ambition.  "Work 
he  came  for,  and  work  he  got — that  of  a  labourer.  He 
was  as  strong  as  a  horse,  but  he  had  not  much  experience 
in  the  management  of  a  hod  ;  and  some  of  the  old  hands, 
including  one  who  was  inclined  to  be  specially  offensive; 
sneered  at  the  new-comer  as  a  ‘green-horn.’  The  leader 
of  the  old  hands  was  a  strong,  burly  fellow,  not  bad- 
natured,  but  inclined  to  bully  the  stranger.  Now  the 
stranger  was  not  one  of  those  who  liked  to  be  bullied  ;  so 
the  moment  he  was  made  fully  aware  of  the  meaning  and 
intent  of  the  offensive  phrase,  he  fairly  challenged,  and  in 
single  combat  manfully  vanquished,  his  ill-advised  assail¬ 
ant.  From  that  moment  he  lost  the  verdant  tinge  which 
he  first  wore.  So  far  this  was  serviceable  ;  but  he  was  not 
content  with  so  poor  a  triumph.  He  saw  other  men — dull 
plodders,  with  ‘not  half  his  own  gumption,’  pushing  their 
way  up  the  social  ladder  ;  and  why  ?  Because  they  could 
read  and  write, — because  they  had  ‘the  learning,’  which, 
alas !  he  had  not.  But  it  was  not  because  he  had  it  not 
at  that  moment,  that  he  could  not  have  it  some  time  or 
other.  Then  lie  would  have  it ;  that  he  was  resolved  on. 
So  the  large  Irishman — who  seemed  big  enough  to  swallow 
master  and  pupils  at  a  meal — sat  down  on  a  form  in  a 
night  school,  and  commenced  to  learn  his  a,  b,  c ;  and,  with 


302 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


tongue  desperately  driven  against  one  check,  struggled 
with  his  ‘  pot-hooks  and  hangers  ’ — the  first  efforts  of  the 
polite  letter  writer.  It  was  hard  work,  far  tougher  than 
that  with  the  spade  or  the  pickaxe.  Many  a  time  did  the 
poor  fellow’s  courage  begin  to  fail,  and  his  heart  sink,  as 
it  were,  into  his  boots ;  but  he  would  not  be  beaten — he 
would  not  have  it  said  that  he  failed.  He  did  not  fail. 
With  the  aid  of  a  fellow-student,  more  advanced  than 
himself,  he  drew  out  his  first  contract,  which  was  for  a 
few  hundred  dollars.  This  was  accepted ;  and  being 
executed  in  the  most  satisfactory  manner  by  the  young 
contractor,  who  himself  performed  no  small  part  of  the 
task,  it  was  his  first  great  step  in  life — contracts  for 
thousands  of  dollars,  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars, 
following  more  rapidly  than,  in  his  wildest  dreams,  he 
could  have  imagined  possible.  This  self-made  man  quickly 
adapted  himself  to  the  manners  of  the  class  to  which  he 
had  so  laboriously  and  creditably  raised  himself ;  and  no 
one  who  converses  with  the  shrewd,  genial,  off-handed 
Irishman,  who  drives  his  carriage,  lives  in  fine  style,  and 
is  educating  his  young  family  with  the  utmost  care  and  at 
great  cost,  could  suppose  that  he  was  the  same  rough  giant 
who  a  few  years  before  sat  upon  the  form  of  a  night 
school,  wearily  plodding  at  words  of  twTo  syllables,  and, 
with  tongue  fiercely  driven  against  his  cheek,  scrawled  on 
a  slate  his  first  lessons  in  writing. 

Any  one  passing  through  the  fashionable  quarter  of  the 
capital  of  a  Southern  State  may  see  the  well-appointed 
mansion  of  a  worthy  Irishman,  who  was  born  within  the 
swing  of  the 

Bells  of  Shandon, 

That  sound  so  grand  on 
The  pleasant  waters 
Of  the  river  Lee. 

As  a  journeyman  baker  he  entered  that  city  in  the  year 
1851.  In  a  fewr  months  alter,  he  had  saved  200  dollars  ; 


HOW  HE  BECAME  A  MASTER  BAKER. 


303 


and  with  this,  as  part  payment,  he  bought  a  small  house 
and  lot  of  half  an  acre  of  ground — the  balance  to  be  paid 
at  the  covenanted  time.  Having  thus  made  his  first  start 
in  life,  he  then  made  his  second — he  married.  Besides 
the  half  acre  in  his  lot,  he  rented  an  additional  acre;  and 
this  acre  wTas  the  chief  means  of  his  future  fortune.  His 
ambition  was  to  be  a  master  baker,  ‘  no  man’s  servant.’ 
How  was  this  to  be  done  ?  Through  the  acre  of  garden. 
But  what  time  had  the  journeyman  baker,  who  worked 
from  three  o’clock  in  the  morning  till  four  in  the  evening 
in  the  bakery,  to  spend  in  cultivating  vegetables  ?  Very 
little  time,  an  ordinary  person  would  suppose ;  but  the 
Corkman,  who  had  seen  how  vegetables  were  grown  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  his  native  city,  and  who  knew  how  profit¬ 
able  they  would  be  when  raised  for  his  adopted  city,  was 
not  an  ordinary  person — on  the  contrary,  he  was  a  deter¬ 
mined  and  energetic  person,  who  was  resolved  to  rise  in 
the  world  by  more  than  ordinary  industry.  So,  after 
leaving  his  day’s  work  at  the  bake-house,  he  would  go  home 
arid  work  at  his  little  farm  from  five  o’clock  in  the  after¬ 
noon  to  a  late  hour  in  the  night — frequently  to  one 
o’clock  next  morning,  if  the  moon  served ;  he  would  then 
snatch  a  couple  of  hours’  rest,  and  be  again  in  the  bake¬ 
house  at  the  regular  hour.  Every  minute  that  he  could 
steal  from  his  natural  rest,  every  moment  of  his  leisure 
time,  was  devoted  by  the  journeyman  baker  to  the  culti¬ 
vation  of  his  land ;  and  when  the  bright  Southern  moon 
flooded  the  silent  night  with  its  radiance,  the  Corkman 
might  be  seen  digging  and  delving,  raking  and  weeding, 
planting  and  sowing ;  until  his  farm  blossomed  as  a  garden, 
and  bore  abundant  fruit.  By  this  means  he  nearly  sup¬ 
ported  his  family,  and  saved  his  wages.  In  three  years  he 
lias  500  dollars  in  the  bank.  With  this  500  dollars  he 
took  his  third  start  in  America — he  became  a  master 
baker.  And  so  well  did  he  succeed  in  his  new  capacity, 
that  he  soon  established  a  good  business,  saved  a  consider- 


3  a  i 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


able  sum  of  money,  educated  his  children,  built  for  them 
a  neat  mansion  in  which  they  enjoy  every  reasonable 
comfort ;  and  I,  who  met  him,  and  received  much  atten¬ 
tion  at  his  hands,  can  state  that  this  self-made  man  is 
among  the  most  respected  of  the  Irish-born  citizens  of  the 
community  in  whose  midst  he  has  established  himself  so 
successfully.  He  had  a  ‘  squeeze  in  his  business  during  the 
war;  but  when  I  saw  him  he  had  got  over  all  his  diffi¬ 
culties,  and  was  then  sailing  before  the  wind.  He  is  a 
genuinely  sober  man,  who,  to  use  his  own  words,  ‘knows 
the  danger  of  drink,  and  never  lost  an  hour  by  it  in  his 
life.’ 


And  here  I  answer  a  question  which  is  in  every  Irish¬ 
man’s  mind,  on  the  tip  of  every  Irishman’s  tongue, — how 
are  the  Irish  doing  in  America  ? — have  they  bettered  their 
condition,  or  the  contrary  ? — are  they  improving  or  going 
back  ?  I  was  nearly  six  months  going  from  place  to  place  ; 
and  during  that  time,  and  in  the  course  of  that  extended 
journey,  I  was  brought  into  contact  with  men  of  different 
nationalities,  various  opinions,  and  all  classes  of  society. 
I  conversed  with  Irishmen  who  took  a  desponding  or  a 
hopeful  view  of  the  position  of  their  countrymen,  who 
mourned  over  their  weaknesses  and  their  follies,  or  were 
proud  of  their  virtues.  I  sought  to  gather  information 
wherever  I  went,  and  I  had  abundant  opportunities  of 
doing  so.  I  searched  and  I  sifted  with  an  earnest  purpose, 
and  a  conscientious  desire  to  come  at  the  truth.  I  set 
statement  against  statement,  opinion  against  opinion,  in 
the  spirit  of  a  judge  rather  than  with  the  feeling  of  an 
advocate — though,  I  honestly  confess  it,  I  could  not,  even 
for  a  second,  divest  myself  of  a  strong  wish  to  hear  the 
best  of  those  of  my  own  race  and  country.  The  result, 
then,  of  every  observation  I  could  make,  of  every  enquiry 
I  instituted,  of  every  information  I  received,  is  this, — that 


THE  IRISH  DON’T  DO  THEMSELVES  JUSTICE. 


305 


while,  in  some  places,  there  are  evils  to  deplore,  but  evils 
which  are  being  remedied,  and  while  many  are  not  doing 
what  they  ought  or  could  do  for  their  advancement,  on  the 
whole,  and  dealing  with  them  in  mass,  the  Irish  in  America 
are  steadily  rising,  steadily  advancing,  steadily  improving 
in  circumstances  and  in  position  ;  and  that,  as  a  rule,  they 
have  enormously  benefitted  their  condition  by  having  left 
the  old  country  for  the  new.  In  every  walk  and  de¬ 
partment  of  life  they  are  making  their  mark.  As  mer¬ 
chants,  bankers,  manufacturers — as  lawyers,  physicians, 
engineers,  architects,  inventors — as  literary  men,  as  men 
of  science,  as  artists,  as  scholars,  as  teachers  of  youth-— as 
soldiers,  wise  in  council  and  terrible  in  battle — as  states¬ 
men,  as  yet  more  the  sons  of  Irishmen  than  Irish  born, — 
the  nationality  is  adequately  and  honourably  represented ; 
while  the  great  bulk — the  mass — are  felt  to  be  essential  to 
the  progress,  the  greatness,  the  very  life  of  the  American 
Republic.  Where,  as  must  necessarily  be  the  case,  the 
Irish  constitute  a  large  proportion  of  the  working  popula¬ 
tion  of  a  great  city,  they  may  be  looked  down  upon  by 
the  prejudiced  or  the  superfine — those  who  dislike  their 
religion,  or  despise  homely  manners  or  rude  employment ; 
but  the  toiling,  hard-working  mass  of  the  Irish  are  never¬ 
theless  rising  day  by  day,  not  only  to  greater  comfort,  but 
to  a  fuller  appreciation  of  their  duties  and  their  destiny  as 
citizens  of  America. 

The  Irish  in  America  injure  themselves  more  than  others 
can  or  are  willing  to  injure  them.  They  injure  themselves 
seriously  by  not  in  all  cases  putting  forward  their  best 
men  to  represent  them,  whether  in  municipal  or  other 
offices  ;  and  by  allowing  men  to  speak  and  act  in  their 
name  who  are  not  the  most  qualified,  indeed  in  some,  and 
too  many,  instances,  not  in  the  least  qualified  to  do  the 
one  or  the  other.  Thoughtful  Irishmen,  sensitive  and  self- 
respecting,  are  the  very  first  to  deplore  this  great  prac¬ 
tical  error ;  and  I  must  say  I  have  been  but  too  sensible  of 


306  THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 

its  damaging  influence  in  more  than  one  instance,  or  one 
locality.  The  evil  which  is  clone  follows  as  a  necessary 
and  inevitable  consequence.  When  the  Irish  put  forward 
or  elect  certain  men,  they  are  assumed  to  do  so  of  their 
own  free  choice — to  select  them  as  the  right  men,  the 
best  men ;  and  this  being  so,  they  must  not  be  surprised 
if  the  prejudiced  or  the  censorious  are  only  too  willing  to 
accept  such  iU-cliosen  and  unfit  representatives  as  accurate 
types  and  fair  exponents  of  Irish  character,  Irish  genius, 
or  Irish  worth.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  when  the  Irish 
adopt  the  right  men — men  who  are  upright,  honourable, 
wise — in  a  word,  presentable — men  of  whom  they  may  say 
with  pride,  £  they  belong  to  us ;  they  are  of  our  stock  ;  we 
are  not  ashamed  to  put  them  forward  as  our  representa¬ 
tives,’ — in  such  case  they  do  not  so  much  do  honour  to 
themselves,  as  simple  justice  to  their  country  and  their 
race.  I  cannot  venture  to  deal  otherwise  than  in  gene¬ 
ralities  ;  and  I  shall  therefore  only  add  that,  while  I  have 
frequently  witnessed,  and  always  with  intense  satisfaction, 
the  result  of  the  wise  and  self-respecting  policy  of  select¬ 
ing  the  best,  the  ablest,  and  the  worthiest  Irishmen,  or 
sons  of  Irishmen,  to  represent  the  race,  I  have  had  too 
many  occasions  to  deplore  the  fatal  folly  of  Irishmen 
thrusting  into  public  positions,  or  rather  suffering  to  be 
thrust  into  such  positions,  men  who,  possibly  excellent 
persons  in  their  own  way,  and  eminently  suited  for  the 
’•etirement  of  domestic  life,  were  not  qualified  to  stand  the 
test  of  American  criticism — that  is,  as  the  representatives 
of  a  great  nationality  and  a  gifted  people.  There  is  no 
lack  of  the  best  men  for  such  offices  or  positions,  be  they 
what  they  may  ;  but  it  will  often  happen  that  the  sensitive 
man  of  merit  has  no  chance  against  the  vulgar  intriguer — « 
and  so  the  Irish  are  damaged  in  the  public  esteem.  This, 
however,  is  an  evil  that  must  cure  itself  in  course  of  time, 
when  the  Irish- American  witnesses  the  happy  results,  of  a 
policy  consistent  not  only  with  reason  and  common-sense, 
but  with  the  most  ordinary  self-respect. 


HOW  THEY  ARE  REGARDED. 


307 


On  the  whole,  then,  and  notwithstanding  this  evil,  which 
is  more  damaging  than  some  will  believe,  the  Irish  in 
America  are  steadily  advancing  in  social  position,  as  well 
as  improving  in  material  prosperity.  They  are  improving 
even  in  the  cities  in  which  dangers  and  temptations  are 
most  liable  to  assail  them ;  they  are  improving  in  places 
in  which  society  is,  as  it  were,  only  settling  down  into  its 
legitimate  grooves ;  and  in  many,  many  parts  of  the  country 
they  are — taking  all  circumstances  into  consideration — - 
progressing  more  rapidly  and  more  successfully  than  any 
other  class  of  the  community.  The  Irish  landed  on  the 
shores  of  America  poorer — with  less  money,  less  means,  less 
capital — than  the  English,  the  Scotch,  or  the  Germans ;  in 
fact,  under  less  favourable  circumstances  in  almost  every 
respect  than  the  people  of  any  other  country.  The  vast 
majority  of  them  came  in  poverty — too  many  in  want  and 
sickness — too  many  only  to  find  a  grave  after  landing  ; 
and,  therefore,  what  the  Irish  in  America  have  done  in 
their  adopted  country — their  new  home — though  by  no 
means  all,  or  anything  like  all,  that  could  be  wished  of 
them,  is  an  indisputable  proof  of  the  inherent  vigour  and 
vitality  of  their  race.  This  is  what  may  be  conscientiously 
said  of.  them  to-day ;  but  how  much  more  may  be  said  of 
them  in  ten  or  twenty  years  hence,  belongs  to.  the  future 
and  to  the  goodness  of  Providence. 

And  now  a  word  as  to  the  manner  in  which  the  Irish  are 
regarded  in  America.  Much  necessarily  depends  upon 
themselves,  but  much  also  depends  on  the  circumstances 
in  which  they  are  placed,  or  by  which  they  are  surrounded. 
In  some  places  they  possibly  exercise,  or  are  supposed  to 
exercise,  too  much  influence  in  elections ;  and  those  whose 
party  they  happen  to  oppose,  or  with  whose  ambition  they 
interfere,  can  scarcely  be  expected  to  think  of  them  and 
speak  of  them  in  the  most  friendly  or  flattering  terms. 
In  other  places  the  religious  sentiment  of  a  large  and 
powerful  class  may  be  so  strong  as  to  intensify  national 


30S 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


prejudice,  a  jealousy  which  is  common  to  all  countries. 
Or  the  majority  of  the  Irish  may  happen  to  be  humble 
working  people ;  and  even  in  Republics  the  rich  are  like  the 
same  class  in  old-established  Monarchies,  rather  inclined 
to  look  down  upon  those  who  are  not,  as  themselves,  decked 
in  purple  and  fine  linen.  I  refer  in  another  place  to  the 
long  and  bitter  struggle  against  the  Catholic  and  the 
foreigner,  and  I  shall  only  now  remark  that,  whatever 
prejudice  may  still  exist,  it  must,  to  a  great  extent,  be 
traced  to  this  old  feeling,  which  has  manifested  itself  at 
various  intervals  before  and  since  the  Revolution ;  and 
that,  when  one  may  hear  or  see  the  Irish  spoken  of  or 
written  of  in  a  harsh  or  contemptuous  spirit,  it  would  be 
well,  before  accepting  such  expressions  of  opinion  as  proof 
of  anything  more  than  of  a  narrow,  a  malevolent,  or  an 
angry  mind,  to  speculate  as  to  the  cause,  the  motive,  or 
the  circumstances  in  which  the  traducer  and  the  traduced 
are  relatively  placed.  On  the  whole,  then,  and  making 
due  allowance  for  the  causes  and  motives  at  which  I  have 
glanced,  the  Irish  do  stand  well  in  the  public  esteem  of 
America ;  and  in  many  places  in  which  I  have  been  I 
know  they  are  not  only  generally  esteemed,  but  are  highly 
popular. 

As  to  the  individual  Irishman,  he  is  perhaps  more 
truly  popular  than  any  other  man  in  America.  His  genial 
qualities  and  kindly  nature,  his  wit,  and  humour,  and 
pleasant  manners — these  render  him  agreeable  as  a  com¬ 
panion,  and  sought  after  in  society  ;  and  when  business 
ability  and  rigid  conscientiousness  are  combined  with  the 
more  social  qualities,  as  they  are  in  numberless  instances, 
then  there  is  no  man  more  admired  or  respected  than  the 
Irishman.  I  have  frequently  heard  an  American  say  of 
an  Irishman,  who  would  no  more  think  of  disguising  his 
nationality  than  he  would  of  committing  a  crime,  ‘  Sir,  he 
is  a  whole-souled  Irishman — a  liigh-souled  gentleman,  sir.’ 

But  there  is  one  class  of  whom,  neither  from  Irishmen 


SCOTCH  IRISH. 


309 


nor  Americans,  is  much  said  in  praise.  *  Whole-souled  ’ 
and  ‘  high-toned  ’  would  sound  as  a  sarcasm  and  a  mockery 
if  applied  to  those  Irish,  or  sons  of  Irish,  ivho  style  them¬ 
selves  ‘  Scotch-Irish  — a  title  or  designation  so  unworthy 
and  so  unnatural,  as  to  excite  the  derision  of  every  man  of 
large  heart  and  generous  spirit. 

The  Scotch-Irish  I  Who  are  the  Scotch-Irish?  What 
does  the  term  mean  ?  Is  not  the  compound  of  itself  a  con¬ 
tradiction  ?  Such  were  the  questions  which  I  involuntarily 
asked  when  the  strange  absurdity  first  met  my  eye  or  ear. 
It  was  so  curious,  it  comprehended  a  treason  so  incon¬ 
sistent  with  the  ordinary  feelings  by  which  men  are 
governed,  that  I  was  at  first  much  perplexed  when  striving 
to  explain  its  meaning.  But  now  I  have  no  difficulty  in 
understanding  and  accounting  for  this  most  ridiculous 
compound,  this  mongrel  designation.  Scotch-Irish  are 
those  Irish,  or  descendants  of  Irishmen,  who  are  ashamed 
of  their  country,  and  represent  themselves  to  Americans 
as  other  than  what  they  really  are.  Not  only  are  they 
ashamed  of  their  country,  but,  so  far  as  this  false  feeling 
influences  them,  they  are  its  shame.  Detested  by  every 
true  Irishman,  they  are  despised  by  every  genuine  Ameri¬ 
can.  It  would  appear  that,  though  the  descendants  of 
settlers  who  came  over,  or  were  sent  over,  to  Ireland  in 
the  time  of  James,  or  Charles,  or  Cromwell,  and  though 
their  families  have  intermixed  with  the  native  population, 
with  whose  blood  and  race  theirs  has  blended  during  two 
centuries — in  fact,  as  far  back  as  when  the  Pilgrim  Fathers 
landed  on  Plymouth  rock — they  still  are  not  Irish !  This, 
practically,  is  what  the  Scotch-Irish  say  of  themselves  by 
the  adoption  of  this  unnatural  distinction  :  ‘  Such  is  our 
stubborn  hatred  of  the  country  on  which  our  remote 
ancestors  were  quartered,  and  from  which  so  many  of  the 
rightful  owners  were  driven  to  make  way  for  us,  we  could 
not  amalgamate  with  the  Irish  nation,  or  sympathise  with 
its  people.’  This  is  a  hard  judgment  for  any  class  to  pro¬ 
nounce  against  itself — and  this  is  unmistakably  implied 


310 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


by  tlie  mongrel  designation  of  Scotch-Irish.  The  noble 
Geraldines  soon  became  more  Irish  than  the  Irish  them¬ 
selves.  Such  is  ever  the  case  with  a  generous  race  ;  they 
will  thoroughly  identify  themselves  with  the  people  among 
whom  their  lot  is  cast.  Not  so  with  the  Scotch-Irish  ;  the 
longer  they  dwell  in  the  country,  the  stronger  seems  to 
be  their  dislike  to  it,  and  the  greater  their  anxiety — when 
abroad — to  be  recognised  as,  or  mistaken  for,  something 
different  from  that  which  they  are,  according  to  every  law 
of  nature.  This,  practically,  is  their  own  story  of  them¬ 
selves. 

It  may  be  well  to  enquire  why  these  people  call  them¬ 
selves  by  this  unpatriotic  title  or  designation.  The  reason 
or  cause  is  based  on  various  motives,  not  one  of  which  is 
praiseworthy  or  ennobling.  Cowardice,  whether  moral  or 
physical,  is  not  a  very  creditable  excuse  for  the  adoption 
of  this  description  of  national  masquerade  ;  yet  to  moral 
cowardice  may  be  traced  this  ludicrous  disguise.  Vanity 
is  not  a  specially  high-toned  motive  ;•  and  vanity  has  much 
to  do  with  it.  Bigotry  is  not  an  ennobling  sentiment ; 
and  bigotry  has  also  its  share  in  the  miserable  treason. 
To  conciliate  prejudice  and  gratify  dislike — this  tvas  the 
origin  of  ^cotch-Irishism. 

The  prejudice  to  be  conciliated  was  twofold — national 
and  religious.  But  the  prejudice  against  the  stranger 
comprehended  all  strangers,  ail  Irish,  the  Northern  Pro¬ 
testant  no  less  than  the  Southern  Catholic.  Hence  then 
the  cry — ‘  I  am  no  mere  Irishman  ;  I  am  Scotch-Irish.’ 
And  many  of  these  men — these  Irish-born  sons  of  Irish- 
born  fathers,  and  Irish-born  grandfathers,  and  Irish-born 
great-grandfathers,  and  Irish-born  great-great-grandfathers, 
joined  in  every  fierce  crusade  against  Irishmen,  or  against 
Irishmen  because  they  were  Catholics.  There  were,  no 
doubt,  many  more  that  claimed  a  remote  Scotch  ancestry, 
who,  Protestants  or  Presbyterians  as  they  were,  stood  by 
their  countrymen  on  every  occasion  when  either  their 
freedom  or  their  religion  was  assailed  ;  and  these  high- 


TIIE  SCOTCH  IRISH. 


an 


minded  men  would  liave  felt  themselves  disgraced  if  tliev 
called  themselves  anything  else  but  what  they  boasted  of 
being — Irish. 

Then  the  mass  of  the  Irish  emigrants  were  poor,  many 
illiterate,  many  in  a  miserable  condition,  a  temporary  bur¬ 
den  on  the  charity  or  the  industry  of  the  community.  For 
the  moment  this  Irish  emigration  was  unpopular  ;  it  ex¬ 
cited  apprehension,  even  hostility,  there  not  being,  at  least 
in  the  minds  of  some,  sufficient  confidence  either  in  the 
energy  of  the  incomers,  or  the  resources  of  the  country  to 
which  they  came.  Here  again  was  the  occasion  for  the 
unnatural  Irish  to  exclaim — ‘These  myriads  of  penniless 
adventurers  are  a  different  race  from  us.  We,  sleek  and 
well  fed,  have  nothing  in  common  with  those  ill-clad,  half- 
starved  creatures  ;  we  are  not  Irish,  but  Scotch-Irish.’  To 
this  pitiable  vanity,  this  abject  moral  cowardice,  there  was 
a  splendid  contrast  in  the  conduct  of  Irishmen,  who,  not¬ 
withstanding  the  old  Scotch  blood  in  their  veins,  welcomed, 
assisted,  and  cherished  their  poor  countrymen,  with  whom 
they  claimed  kindred,  even  though  their  pockets  were 
empty,  their  raiment  was  scanty,  and  sickness  had  followed 
in  their  track. 

Then  the  vast  majority  of  the  Irish  emigrants  were  Ca¬ 
tholics  ;  and  when  the  evil  spirit  of  persecution  broke  out, 
here  was  a  strong  motive  for  repudiating  the  country  that 
flooded  America  with  Popery.  ‘We  are  of  a  different  race 
and  religion  to  these  people,  good  Know  Nothings !  Ex¬ 
cellent  Native  Americans !  do  not  confound  us  with  these 

t 

Irish  Papists.  We  are  Scotch-Irish — Protestant  Scotch- 
Irish.  We  are  as  opposed  to  these  Irish  Papists  as  you 
are ;  and  to  prove  our  sincerity — to  prove  to  you  that  wo 
are  not  of  the  same  blood,  though  we  had  the  misfortune 
to  be  born  in  the  same  country,  we  will  heartily  join  you 
in  every  effort  you  may  make  to  put  them  down.’  And 
they  did  as  they  said.  They  were  honest  so  far. 

The  literature  of  England  was  anti-Catliolic,  if  not  anti- 
Irish  ;  it  excited  hostility  and  it  deepened  prejudice.  The 


312 


TI1E  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


literature  of  England  became  the  literature  of  America,  or 
it  influenced  the  tone  of  the  literature  of  native  growth. 
Another  reason  for  the  poor-hearted  Irishman,  while  pro¬ 
claiming  his  Protestantism,  to  repudiate  his  country. 

A  volume  of  indignant  commentary  could  not  outweigh 
the  force  of  a  few  words  which  I  heard  uttered  by  an  Ame¬ 
rican,  who  was  much  perplexed  by  the  term  Scotch-Irish  : 

‘  What  does  Mr. - mean  ?  Why  should  he  set  himself 

out  as  not  being  an  Irishman  ?  What  can  he  mean  by  this 
Scotch-Irish  ?  Wasn’t  he  born  in  Ireland?  I  was  born  in 
America.  I  am  an  American.  Then  why  should  he  pre¬ 
tend  he  isn’t  an  Irishman?  I  may  prefer  an  American 
Protestant  to  an  Irish  Catholic,  though  a  man’s  religion  is 
nothing  to  me,  it’s  his  own  affair  ;  but  I  like  the  man  who 
stands  up  for  his  native  land,  whatever  he  is.  I  don’t  like 
a  hound  that  denies  the  country  that  gave  him  birth.  It 
isn’t  natural.’ 

Thus  it  is,  whatever  their  own  opinion  of  their  conduct 
may  be,  those  who  proclaim  themselves  Scotch-Irish  gain 
little  in  the  esteem  of  the  generous  and  the  high-spirited, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  lose  much  by  this  shabby  absurdity. 

I  am  happy  to  say  that  among  the  most  favourable 
specimens  of  the  country  whom  I  met  in  British  America 
or  the  States,  whether  North  or  South,  were  Irish  Pro¬ 
testants,  from  Ulster  as  well  as  Munster  ;  but  these  men 
were  not  only  known  and  admired  as  Irishmen,  but  they 
boasted  of  being  Irishmen.  ‘Whole-souled  Irishmen’ 
indeed.  I  must  add,  in  justice  to  my  countrymen  in 
Canada,  that  I  never  heard  of  the  Scotch-Irish  until  I  came 
to  the  States. 

There  may  possibly  be  those  in  Ireland  who  in  their 
secret  hearts  have  no  love  for  the  country  that  gave  them 
birth  ;  but  there  is  no  open  and  avowed  treason  to  their 
nationality.  Anything  of  the  kind  would  only  ensure 
universal  contempt,  and  loss  of  public  honour  and  private 
esteem  to  the  person  mean  enough  or  rash  enough  to  be 
guilty  of  it.  Then  why  should  it  be  pardoned  in  America? 


CHAPTER  XVIX. 


Remittances  Home — Something  of  the  Angel  still — IIow  the 
Family  are  brought  out — Remittances — A  ‘Mercenary’ — A 
Young  Pioneer — A  Poor  Irish  Widow — Self-sacrifice — The 
Amount  sent. 


IT  is  difficult  to  realise  to  tlie  mind  the  magnitude  of 
the  pecuniary  sacrifices  made  by  the  Irish  in  America, 
either  to  bring  out  their  relatives  to  their  adopted  country, 
or  to  relieve  the  necessities  and  improve  the  circumstances 
of  those  who  could  not  leave  or  who  desired  to  remain  in 
the  old  country.  To  say  that  they  have  thus  disposed  of  a 
sum  equal  to  Twenty-four  Millions  of  British  money,  or. 
supposing  there  to  have  been  no  depreciation  of  the  cur¬ 
rency  of  the  United  States,  One  Hundred  and  Twenty 
Millions  of  Dollars,  scarcely  conveys  the  true  idea  of  the 
vastness  of  the  amount  of  money  sent  within  a  quarter  of 
a  century  by  one  branch  of  the  same  great  family  to  the 
other.  But  if  it  were  asserted — as  it  might  be  with  the 
most  perfect  accuracy — that  the  amount  of  money  sent 
across  the  ocean  by  the  Irish  in  America  and  Australia 
within  that  time  would  have  paid  for  more  than  two-thirds 
of  all  the  property  that  passed  through  the  Court  of  En¬ 
cumbered  Estates  in  Ireland — property  represented  by  an 
annual  income  oir  rental  exceeding  2,000,000?. — the  mind 
might  possibly  appreciate  the  prodigious  magnitude  of  this 
he  art-offering  of  one  of  the  most  generous  and  self-sacri¬ 
ficing  of  all  the  families  of  the  human  race.  As  a  mere 
fact,  more  than  24,000,000?.  have  been  sent  by  the 

14 


314 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


Irish  to  pay  for  passages  and  outfits  and  fares  to  distant 
places ;  to  enable  those  ‘  at  home  ’  to  pay  a  high  rent,  per¬ 
haps  in  a  time  of  scarcity ;  to  support  parents  too  old,  or 
too  feeble,  or  too  prejudiced,  to  venture  across  the  sea ;  or 
to  secure  the  safety  and  education  of  brothers  and  sisters 
yet  too  young  to  brave  the  perils  of  a  protracted  voyage 
and  a  long  journey  in  a  strange  country. 

There  is  not  a  private  banker,  or  passenger  broker,  or 
agent  in  any  of  the  cities  of  the  United  States  who  could 
not  tell  of  instances  of  the  most  extraordinary  self-denial 
practised  by  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the  Irish  race.  The 
entries  in  their  ledgers  are  prosaic  enough — so  many  dol¬ 
lars  sent,  on  such  a  day,  by  a  young  man  or  a  young 
woman  with  an  Irish  name,  to  some  person  in  Ireland  of 
a  similar  name.  But  were  that  matter-of-fact  entry  trans¬ 
fused  into  its  true  colours,  volumes  of  poetry  might  be 
written  of  those  countless  heart-offerings,  the  fruits  of 
hard  self-denial,  not  merely  at  the  sacrifice  of  innocent 
enjoyments,  and  humble  finery,  dear  to  woman’s  nature, 
from  a  natural  and  graceful  instinct,  but  often  at  the 
cost  of  the  fondest  hopes  of  the  human  heart.  How  long, 
for  instance,  if  the  accountant  troubled  himself  to  consider, 
may  he  not  have  remembered  this  most  regular  of  his- 
visitors,  since  when,  almost  a  child  in  years,  she  timidly 
and  yet  proudly  confided  to  his  custody  her  first  earnings, 
with  many  an  injunction  and  many  a  prayer,  and — believ¬ 
ing  she  read  sympathy  in  his  face — told  him  for  whom  it 
was  intended,  and  how  sadly  it  was  wanted  by  the  old 
people  at  home,  for  whom  she  had  risked  the  dangers  of 
the  deep,  and  the  worse  perils  of  a  strange  land  ?  Did  he 
care  to  regard  her  in  any  other  light  than  as  a  constant 
customer,  he  might  have  observed  how  the  soft  fair  face 
lost  its  maiden  bloom,  and  hardened  into  premature  age, 
marked  with  lines  of  care  and  toil,  as  year  after  year  this 
unconscious  martyr  to  filial  duty  surrendered  everything 
— even  the  vision  of  a  home  blessed  by  the  love  of  hus- 


REMITTANCES  HOME. 


315 


band  and  tlie  caresses  of  children — to  keep  the  roof  over 
the  head  of  father  or  of  mother,  and  provide  for  their 
comfort  in  the  winter  of  their  days  ;  or  to  pay  for  the 
support  of  a  young  brother  or  sister,  or  perhaps  the  orphan 
child  of  a  sister  who  had  confided  it  to  her  care  with  her 
dying  breath.  I  have  many  times,  and  always  with  in¬ 
stinctive  reverence,  seen  such  noble  Irish  women  in  the 
act  of  sending  the  fortieth  or  the  fiftieth  remittance  to 
their  relatives  in  Ireland ;  and  the  cool  matter-of-fact 
deliberateness  with  which  the  money  was  deposited,  and 
the  order  obtained,  was  an  eloquent  proof  of  the  frequency 
of  their  visits  for  the  same  purpose. 

The  great  ambition  of  the  Irish  girl  is  to  send  ‘some¬ 
thing’  to  her  people  as  soon  as  possible  after  she  has 
landed  in  America  ;  and  in  innumerable  instances  the  first 
tidings  of  her  arrival  in  the  New  World  are  accompanied 
with  a  remittance,  the  fruits  of  her  first  earnings  in  her  first 
place.  Loving  a  bit  of  finery  dearly,  she  will  resolutely 
shut  her  eyes  to  the  attractions  of  some  enticing  article  of 
dress,  to  prove  to  the  loved  ones  at  home  that  she  has  not 
forgotten  them  ;  and  she  will  risk  the  danger  of  insuffi¬ 
cient  clothing,  or  boots  not  proof  against  rain  or  snow, 
rather  than  diminish  the  amount  of  the  little  hoard  to 
which  she  is  weekly  adding,  and  which  she  intends  as  a 
delightful  surprise  to  parents  who  possibly  did  not  alto¬ 
gether  approve  of  her  hazardous  enterprise.  To  send 
money  to  her  people,  she  will  deny  herself  innocent  enjoy¬ 
ments,  womanly  indulgences,  and  the  gratifications  of 
legitimate  vanity ;  and  such  is  the  generous  and  affec¬ 
tionate  nature  of  these  young  girls,  that  they  regard  the 
sacrifices  they  make  as  the  most  ordinary  matter  in  the 
world,  for  which  they  merit  neither  praise  nor  approval. 
To  assist  their  relatives,  whether  parents,  or  brothers  and 
sisters,  is  with  them  a  matter  of  imperative  duty,  which 
they  do  not  and  cannot  think  of  disobeying,  and  which, 
on  the  contrary,  they  delight  in  performing.  And  the 


31G 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


money  destined  to  that  purpose  is  regarded  as  sacred,  and 
must  not  be  diverted  to  any  object  less  worthy. 

I  was  told  in  New  York  of  a  young  Irish  girl,  who  was 
only  one  month  in  the  country,  going  to  the  office  of 
the  well-known  Irish  Emigration  Society’s  Bank  to  send 
her  first  earnings  to  her  mother,  of  course  to  the  care  of 
the  parish  priest.  She  brought  with  her  five  dollars, 
which  in  her  simplicity  she  supposed  to  be  equivalent  to 
the  11.  she  intended  to  transmit.  At  that  time  six  dollars 
and  fifty  cents  were  required  to  make  up  the  British 
pound,  and  the  poor  girl’s  disappointment  was  intense 
when  she  was  made  to  understand  that  she  was  deficient  a 
dollar  and  a  half.  The  friend  who  accompanied  her,  and 
who  had  been  some  time  longer  in  the  country,  lent  her  a 
dollar  ;  the  clerk  advanced  her  the  balance,  and  the  un¬ 
diminished  pound  was  sent  to  her  ‘poor  mother,  who 
wanted  it  badly.’  In  a  few  days  after,  the  money  advanced 
by  the  clerk  was  paid  by  the  young  girl,  whose  face  was 
soon  known  in  the  office,  as  she  came  at  regular  intervals 
to  send  remittances,  which  were  gradually  increasing  in 
amount.  In  a  very  short  time  she  understood  the  relative 
value  of  American  *  greenbacks  ’  and  British  gold,  and  made 
no  mistake  as  to  the  amount  of  the  money-orders  she 
desired  to  transmit. 

It  frequently  occurred  in  that  office,  that  small  sums 
were  advanced  to  make  up  the  amount  required  by  the 
person  intending  to  send  a  remittance  ;  and  in  no  instance 
was  there  failure  in  payment.  A  debt  of  the  kind  is,  of 
all  others,  the  most  sacred.  The  money  which  the  loan 
thus  helps  to  complete  is  a  filial  offering — the  gift  of  a 
child  to  a  parent  ;  and  confidence  so  reposed  is  never 
forfeited.  I  have  heard  the  same  statement  made  by 
bankers  and  brokers  in  many  parts  of  the  United  States. 

So  much  is  this  sending  of  remittances  to  Ireland  a 
matter  of  routine  to  those  engaged  in  the  business,  that 
there  must  be  something  special  in  the  circumstance  of  the 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ANGEL  STILL. 


317 


ease,  or  in  the  manner  or  appearance  of  the  applicant 
foi  a  bill  of  exchange,  to  excite  the  least  attention.  But 
he  must  have  been  insensible  indeed  who  was  not  attracted 
by  the  strange  aspect  and  appearance  of  a  regular  visitor 
at  the  bank  in  Chambers’  Street.  So  surely  as  the  festivals 
of  Christmas  and  Easter  were  approaching,  would  a  man  of 
powerful  frame,  wild  eyes,  and  dissipated  appearance,  enter 
the  office,  and  laying  on  the  counter  $15,  or  $20,  ask  for 
an  order  in  favour  of  an  old  man  away  in  some  country 
village  in  Ireland.  Not  unfrequently  would  the  clothes  of 
the  Society’s  customer  bear  the  marks  of  abject  poverty, 
and  his  face  evidences  of  the  roughest  usage  ;  and  were  the 
police  asked  to  give  a  character  of  this  poor  fellow,  they 
would  say  that,  though  honest  and  free  from  crime,  there 
was  not  ‘a  harder  case’  in  New  York;  and  that  there 
were  few  better  known  in  the  Tombs  than  he  was.  True, 
he  was  a  hard  case  indeed,  wasting  his  strength  and  energy 
in  folly  and  dissipation,  working  now  and  then  as  a  long¬ 
shore  man,  but  spending  what  he  earned  in  drink,  and 
only  sober  when  in  prison,  paying  the  penalty  of  drunken¬ 
ness  or  violence,  or  at  the  two  fixed  periods  of  the  year — 
some  time  before  Christmas  and  some  time  before  Easter. 
While  in  prison  his  sobriety  was  involuntary — at  these 
periods  it  was  voluntary  and  deliberate.  His  old  father 
in  Ireland  expected  to  hear  from  ‘his  boy,’  and  the  letter 
so  anxiously  looked  for  at  home  should  not  be  empty.  So 
long  then  as  it  was  necessary  to  work  in  order  to  send  a 
couple  of  pounds  as  a  Christmas-box  or  an  Easter  gift,  he 
would  do  so,  and  remain  sober  during  that  time  ;  but  once 
the  money  wras  sent,  and  the  sacred  duty  discharged,  he 
would  go  back  to  the  old  course,  spending  his  days  partly 
at  work,  partly  in  rows  and  dissipation,  and  very  constantly 
in  the  Tombs,  possibly  repenting  his  wanton  waste  of  life. 
There  was  no  one  to  tell  the  old  man  at  home  of  the  wild 
desperate  course  of  his  ‘boy’  in  America,  and  he  neve? 
knew  with  what  heroic  self-denial  these  welcome  re- 


318 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


mitlances  were  earned,  or  liow  tlie  one  strong  affection, 
the  one  surviving  sense  of  duty,  was  sufficient,  though 
unhappily  but  for  a  moment,  to  redeem  a  reckless  but  not 
altogether  degraded  nature.  There  was  indeed  something 
of  the  angel  left  in  that  victim  of  the  most  fatal  enemy  to 
the  Irish  in  the  NewT  "World. 

With  all  banks  and  offices  through  which  money  is  sent 
to  Ireland  the  months  of  December  and  March  are  the 
busiest  portions  of  the  year.  The  largest  amount  is  then 
sent ;  then  the  offices  are  full  of  bustling,  eager,  indeed 
clamorous  applicants,  and  then  are  the  clerks  hard  set  in 
their  attempts  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  the  impatient 
senders,  who  are  mostly  females,  and  chiefly  ‘ girls  in 
place.’  The  great  festivals  of  Christmas  and  Easter  are 
specially  dear  to  the  Irish  heart,  being  associated  with  the 
most  sacred  mysteries  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  like¬ 
wise  with  those  modest  enjoyments  with  which  the  family, 
however  humble  or  poor,  seek  to  celebrate  a  season  of 
spiritual  rejoicing.  Then  there  is  joy  in  the  Church,  which 
typifies  in  the  decorations  of  her  altars  as  in  the  robes  of  her 
ministers  the  gladness  which  should  dwell  in  the  heart  of 
the  Christian.  Thus  misery,  and  sorrow,  and  want,  are  not 
in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  these  solemn  festivals,  nor 
with  the  feelings  which  ought  to  prevail  with  those  wTho 
believe  in  their  teaching.  Therefore,  to  enable  the  friends 
at  home — the  loved  ones  never  forgotten  by  the  Irish 
exile — to  ‘keep’  the  Christmas  or  the  Easter  in  a  fitting 
manner — in  reality,  to  afford  them  some  little  comforts  at 
those  grateful  seasons  of  the  Christian  year — remittances 
are  specially  sent ;  and  coming  from  the  source  which  they 
do,  these  comforts,  too  often  sadly  needed,  are  the  more 
prized  by  those  to  whom  the  means  for  procuring  them  are 
forwarded  with  touching  remembrances,  and  fond  prayers 
and  blessings,  grateful  alike  to  piety  and  affection.  There 
is  something  beautiful  in  these  timely  memorials  of  una- 


HOW  THE  FAMILY  ARE  BROUGHT  OUT. 


319 


bated  love  ’  they  link  still  closer  hearts  which  the  ocean 
cannot  divide. 

What  wonderful  things  have  not  these  Irish  girls  done  I 
Take  a  single  example — and  there  is  not  a  State  in  the 
Union  in  which  the  same  does  not  occur : — Resolving 
to  do  something  to  better  the  circumstances  of  her  family, 
the  young  Irish  girl  leaves  her  home  for  America.  There 
she  goes  into  service,  or  engages  in  some  kind  of  feminine 
employment.  The  object  she  has  in  view — the  same  for 
which  she  left  her  home  and  ventured  to  a  strange  country 
— protects  her  from  all  danger,  especially  to  her  character  : 
that  object,  her  dream  by  day  and  night,  is  the  welfare  of 
her  family,  whom  she  is  determined,  if  possible,  to  again 
have  with  her  as  of  old.  From  the  first  moment,  she  saves 
every  cent  she  earns — that  is,  every  cent  she  can  spare 
from  what  is  absolutely  necessary  to  her  decent  appearance. 
She  regards  everything  she  has  or  can  make  as  belonging 
to  those  to  whom  she  has  unconsciously  devoted  the  flower 
of  her  youth,  and  for  whom  she  is  willing  to  sacrifice  her 
woman’s  dearest  hopes.  To  keep  her  place,  or  retain  her 
employment,  what  will  she  not  endure !— sneers  at  her 
nationality,  mockery  of  her  peculiarities,  even  ridicule  of 
her  faith,  though  the  hot  blood  flushes  her  cheek  with 
fierce  indignation.  At  every  hazard  the  place  must  be 
kept,  the  money  earned,  the  deposit  in  the  savings-bank 
increased  ;  and  though  many  a  night  is  passed  in  tears  and 
prayers,  her  face  is  calm,  and  her  eye  bright,  and  her  voice 
cheerful.  One  by  one,  the  brave  girl  brings  the  members 
of  her  family  about  her.  But  who  can  tell  of  her  anguish 
if  one  of  the  dear  ones  goes  wrong,  or  strays  from  the 
right  path! — who  would  imagine  her  rapture  as  success 
crowns  her  efforts,  and  she  is  rewarded  in  the  steadiness 
of  the  brother  for  whom  she  feared  and  hoped,  or  in  the 
progress  of  the  sister  to  whom  she  has  been  as  a  mother ! 
One  by  one,  she  has  brought  them  all  across  the  ocean,  to 
become  members  of  a  new  community,  citizens  of  a  great 


320 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


country — it  may  be,  tlie  mothers  and  fathers  of  a  future 
race ;  and  knowing  the  perils  which  surround  youth  in  a 
country  in  which  licence  is  too  often — with  the  unthink¬ 
ing  and  inexperienced — confounded  with  liberty,  and  im¬ 
patience  of  control  with  proper  independence  of  spirit,  the 
faithful  girl  seeks  to  draw  them  within  the  influence  of 
religion,  in  which,  as  in  her  passionate  love  of  her  family, 
she  has  found  her  safeguard  and  her  strength.  Probably 
she  has  grown  old  before  her  time,  possibly  she  realises  in 
a  happy  marriage  the  reward  of  her  youth  of  care  and  toil ; 
but  were  the  choice  to  be  given  her  of  personal  happiness, 
or  all-sacrificing  affection,  she  would  choose  the  hard  road 
rather  than  the  flowery  path.  Such  is  the  humble  Irish 
girl,  who  may  be  homely,  who  may  be  deficient  in  book 
knowledge,  but  whose  heart  is  beyond  gold  in  value. 

There  is  no  idea  of  repayment  of  the  money  thus  ex¬ 
pended.  Once  given,  there  is  an  end  of  it.  This  is  not 
so  with  other  nationalities.  The  Germans,  a  more  prudent, 
are  a  less  generous  people  than  the  Irish  ;  and  when  money 
is  expended  in  the  bringing  out  of  relatives,  it  is  on  the 
understanding  that  one  day  or  other  it  wfill  be  refunded — 
that  it  will  become  a  matter  of  account,  to  be  arranged  as 
soon  as  possible,  or,  at  farthest,  when  convenient.  An  emi¬ 
nent  Irish  clergyman,  who,  from  his  position,  has  much  to  do 
with  the  affairs  of  a  large  and  important  diocese,  remarked 
to  an  Irish  girl,  one  of  his  penitents,  who  came  to  consult 
him  as  to  the  best  mode  of  bringing  out  her  mother  and 
father,  she  having  frequently  sent  them  remittances,  and 
also  brought  out  and  provided  for  a  brother  and  sister. — 
‘Why,  Ellen,  you  are  leaving  yourself  nothing.  Now  your 
father,  as  you  tell  me,  can  get  on  well,  and  there  is  work 
enough  for  him  here  ;  and  surely  he  ought  to  pay  you  back 
something  of  what  I  know  you  have  been  send  ing  him  for 
years.’  The  girl  looked  at  her  old  friend  and  adviser,  first 
in  doubt,  then  in  surprise,  then  in  indignation.  When 
she  replied,  it  was  with  sparkling  eye  and  flushed  cheek-- 


REMITTANCES. 


821 


‘What,  sir!  take  back  from  my  father  and  mother  wliat  I 
gave  them  from  my  heart !  I  could  not  rest  in  my  bed  if 
X  did  anything  so  mean.  Never  say  the  like  of  that  to  me 
again,  Father,  and  God  bless  you!’  and  the  poor  girl’s 
voice  quivered  with  emotion,  as  her  eye  softened  in  wistful 
appeal.  ‘Don’t  mind,  Ellen,’  said  the  priest,  ‘I  was 
wrong;  I  should  have  known  you  better.’  CI  really,’  as 
he  said  to  me,  c  meant  to  try  what  answer  she  would  give  ; 
for  that  same  day  I  was  cognisant  of  a  very  different  mode 
of  arranging  matters.  Sir,  let  people  say  what  they  please 
of  them,  the  Irish  are  a  grand  race,  after  all,  and  the  Irish 
women  are  an  honour  to  their  country  and  their  faith.’ 
This  was  said  with  an  enthusiasm  not  usual  to  a  man  so 
self-contained  as  this  somewhat  Americanised  Irish  Priest. 

Instances  without  number  might  be  adduced  in  vindi¬ 
cation  of  the  eulogium  thus  pronounced.  This  year  (1867) 
a  young  girl  landed  at  Castle  Garden,  and  was  fortunate 
enough  to  obtain  employment  the  same  day.  She  had  in 
her  possession  a  pound  in  gold,  and  some  shillings ;  and 
finding  that  she  was  safely  provided  for,  she  determined 
to  send  back  the  money  to  her  mother,  to  whom  it  would 
be  of  great  assistance.  Her  employer,  seeing  her  so  well 
disposed,  advanced  her  a  month’s  wages,  which  she  was 
delighted  to  add  to  her  own  money ;  and  a  draft  was  pro¬ 
cured  and  ‘mailed’  the  very  first  day  of  her  arrival  in 
America ! 

An  Irish  girl  in  Buffalo,  who  had  been  but  four  years  in 
the  country,  had  within  that  time  paid  for  the  passages 
of  two  brothers  and  two  sisters,  besides  sending  40 1. ;  and, 
when  lately  sending  another  remittance  through  the  Irish 
Emigrant  Society  of  New  York,  she  said  she  ‘would  not 
rest  until  she  brought  out  her  dear  father  and  mother,’ 
which  she  hoped  she  would  be  able  to  do  within  the  next 
six  months. 

In  populous  cities  the  women  send  home  more  money 
than  the  men ;  in  small  towns  and  rural  districts  the  men 


322 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


are  as  constant  in  their  remittances,  and  perhaps  send 
larger  sums.  Great  cities  offer  too  many  temptations  to 
improvidence  or  to  vice,  while  in  small  places  and  rural 
districts  temptations  are  fewer,  and  the  occasion  for 
spending  money  recklessly  less  frequent;  hence  it  is,  that 
the  man  who,  amidst  the  whirl  and  excitement  of  life  in  a 
great  city,  but  occasionally  sends  $10  or  $20  to  the  old 
people  at  home,  sends  frequent  and  liberal  remittances  when 
once  he  breathes  the  purer  air  of  the  country,  and  frees  him 
self  from  the  dangerous  fascination  of  the  drinking-saloon. 

Whether  the  money  is  given  as  the  price  of  the  passage 
out,  or  in  the  form  of  a  ticket  paid  for  in  America,  and  thus 
forwarded  to  Ireland,  or  is  sent  as  a  means  of  supplying 
some  want  or  relieving  a  pressing  necessity,  practically 
there  is  no  more  thought  of  it  by  the  donor.  It  not  un- 
frequently  happens  that  tickets  are  returned  to  the  donors, 
the  persons  to  whom  they  were  sent  having  changed  their 
minds,  being  unwilling  or  afraid  to  leave  the  old  country 
for  a  new  home.  But  the  money — recouped  through  a 
friendly  agent — is  almost  invariably  sent  back,  with  a  re¬ 
mark  somewhat  in  this  form  :  c  I  intended  it  for  you  any 
way,  either  in  ticket  or  in  money ;  and  if  you  won’t  take  it 
in  ticket,  why  you  must  in  money.  It  is  yours,  anyhow, 
and  no  one  else  is  to  have  it.’ 

A  large  amount  is  annually  expended  in  the  purchase 
of  tickets  at  the  American  side ;  but  this,  large  as  it  is, 
bears  only  a  small  proportion  when  compared  with  the 
enormous  amount  sent  in  the  shape  of  assistance  to  rela¬ 
tives  at  home.  For  instance,  there  was  sent  last  year 
(18GG)  by  one  firm  in  Lowell  $44,290;  and  of  this  amount 
$32,000  were  for  the  material  assistance  of  the  friends  at 
home,  and  but  $12,000  in  passage  tickets  out.  The  total 
amount,  though  small  in  comparison  to  the  vast  sums  sent 
from  the  great  cities,  is  still  not  a  little  surprising,  when  it 
is  considered  that  the  Irish  population,  consisting  for  the 
most  part  of  young  persons  working  in  mills  and  factories, 


A  ‘  MERCENARY.  ’ 


32.1 


is  now  about  15,000.  From  another  emigration  agent  in 
tlie  same  place,  and  who  is  but  recently  in  the  business,  a 
striking  instance  of  liberality  is  obtained.  He  says — ‘  The 
most  I  received  at  any  one  time  was  20/.,  or  $140,  from  an 
industrious  Irish  girl  in  one  of  our  mills.’ 

The  following  instance  of  self-devotion,  though  not  at 
all  of  uncommon  occurrence,  displays  in  a  still  more 
striking  manner  how  ready  these  humble  Irish  people— 
not  Scotch-Irish,  as  the  miserable  cant  of  the  day  has  it, 
but  Irish  Celts — are  to  make  every  sacrifice  for  those  they 
love.  A  poor  Irish  labourer  emigrated  to  America  in  1861, 
in  the  hope  of  bettering  his  condition,  and  being  enabled, 
by  hard  work,  to  bring  out  his  wife  and  seven  children, 
whom  he  had  been  compelled  to  leave  after  him  in  Ireland. 
It  was  an  unpropitious  time  for  a  working  man,  as  the  war 
had  just  broken  out,  and  employment  was  scarce  in  many 
cities  of  the  Union.  All  he  required  was  an  opportunity 
to  work,  his  thoughts  being  for  ever  turned  to  the  old  land 
in  which  he  left  those  who,  he  knew,  looked  to  him  as  their 
only  hope.  For  a  time  he  was  discouraged  and  despond¬ 
ing,  but  he  resolved  to  wait  awhile,  and  take  advantage  of 
any  opportunity  that  would  offer,  through  which  he  might 
be  enabled  to  achieve  his  grand  object — the  bringing  out 
of  his  wife  and  family.  The  opportunity  did  offer  rather 
unexpectedly,  and  in  this  way — a  gentleman  who  prefer¬ 
red  the  profits  of  a  lucrative  business  to  the  risks  of  war, 
desired  to  obtain  a  substitute,  who  would  take  his  place 
for  three  years  under  the  banner  of  the  Union  ;  and  to 
secure  some  one  to  fight,  or  possibly  die,  in  his  place,  he 
was  willing  to  pay  down  One  Thousand  Dollars.  The 
poor  Irishman  heard  of  this  dazzling  offer,  and  at  once 
accepted  it.  The  money  was  paid  to  the  substitute,  by 
whom  it  was  thus  disposed  of  :  he  placed  it  in  the  hands 
of  a  friend,  directing  him  to  send  part  to  Ireland,  to  bring 
out  his  family,  and  reserve  the  balance  to  meet  their  wants 
on  arrival — saying,  if  he  was  killed  in  battle,  or  if  he  died 


324 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


of  sickness,  he  had  done  the  best  thing  he  could  for  hia 
wife  and  children.  He  was  quickly  marched  to  the  front, 
where  the  hot  work  was  going  on ;  but  though  he  was  in 
many  a  hard-fought  battle,  and  saw  death  in  every  shape, 
he  passed  scatheless  through  the  dread  ordeal — steel  and 
lead  seemed  to  have  no  power  to  injure  him,  nor  did 
hunger  and  hardship  break  him  down.  He  returned  to 
his  family,  a  bronzed  war-worn  soldier,  and  is  now  a  hard¬ 
working  honest  citizen  of  a  New  England  town.  Your 
scornful  *  Special  Correspondent  ’  would  no  doubt  have  set 
him  down  as  a  base  mercenary,  who  hired  himself  to  butcher 
his  fellow  men ;  but  such  was  not  the  opinion  of  those  to 
whom  the  facts  were  known. 

The  gentleman — an  eminent  American  physician — to 
whom  I  am  indebted  for  this  strong  proof  of  family  affec¬ 
tion,  says  : — ‘In  my  professional  visits  I  have  met  from 
time  to  time  many  instances  where  a  father  or  a  child,  a 
brother  or  a  sister,  had  made  very  great  efforts  and 
sacrifices  to  have  enough  of  money  to  send  to  Ireland  to 
bring  out  one  or  more  members  of  their  families.  These 
are  noble  and  beautiful  examples  of  affection  and  disin¬ 
terestedness,  that  have  occurred  in  the  obscure  and  humble 
life  of  the  Irish  emigrant  in  America,  that  cannot  be 
surpassed,  in  my  opinion,  anywhere  by  sketches  to  be 
found  in  the  biography  of  individuals  or  the  history  of 
nations.’  The  civilised  world,  less  scornful  or  contemptu¬ 
ous  than  certain  traducers  of  the  humble  Irish,  will  endorse 
that  opinion. 

Few  instances  of  this  c  affection  and  disinterestedness  ’ 
could  exceed  that  displayed  by  a  mere  child  from  Kil¬ 
kenny..  Pat  -  was  but  thirteen  years  old  when  he 

determined,  if  possible,  to  go  to  America,  having  heard 
that  he  had  an  uncle  who  lived  in  St.  Louis,  Missouri. 
His  idea  of  America  was  what  might  be  expected  from  a 
child  of  his  age, — his  notion  being,  that  every  boy  in  that 
favoured  country  was  his  own  master,  and  had  a  pony  to 


A  YOUNG  PIONEER. 


32a 


ride  whenever  he  wished  for  that  enjoyment.  His  motive 
in  urging  his  father  and  mother  to  consent  to  his  perilous 
enterprise  was  the  desire  to  make  his  fortune,  and  be  able 
to  bring  out  all  his  family,  and  make  them,  according  to 
the  story-book  formula,  ‘as  happy  as  the  days  are  long." 
The  parents  of  the  boy  allowed  themselves  to  be  per¬ 
suaded  by  him,  especially  as  his  uncle  would  be  certain 
to  receive  and  take  care  of  him  ;  and  a  steerage  passage 
at  New  Orleans  having  been  procured,  the  little  fellow 
started  on  his  venturous  journey.  Landing  at  New 
Orleans,  he,  knowing  nothing  of  the  country,  imagined 
that  he  could  easily  walk  to  St.  Louis !  as  he  might  from 
Kilkenny  to  the  neighbouring  town.  Hearing  that  the 
goal  of  his  hopes — the  city  in  which  his  uncle  lived — was 
nearly  2,000  miles  distant,  he  was  sorely  afflicted.  He 
went  from  steamboat  to  steamboat,  asking  sailor,  steward, 
and  captain,  ‘did  they  know  his  uncle?  would  they  take 
him  to  St.  Louis?’  and  telling  them  his  name  was  Pat.’ 

Sailors  and  stewards  and  captains  of  the  Mississippi  boats 
are  not  invariably  the  mildest  of  mortals ;  therefore  it 
must  not  be  a  matter  of  surprise  that  the  eager  questions 
of  the  poor  Irish  boy  with  the  beseeching  eyes  were  more 
often  replied  to  in  a  rough  and  surly  manner  than  other¬ 
wise.  If  those  to  whom  he  applied  troubled  themselves  to 
think  of  him  at  all,  it  was  as  a  foolish  or  importunate  cub 
who  had  no  business  to  bother  them  with  his  stupid  non¬ 
sense.  What  was  his  uncle  to  them  ?  or  did  they  care  a 
cent  whether  his  name  was  Pat  Blank  or  Pat  anything 
else  ?  He  was  bade  get  about  his  business,  and  that  quickly 
too.  The  child  began  to  sob  and  pray  ;  and  as,  sobbing 
and  praying,  and  sorely  bewildered,  he  was  wandering  about 
the  levee,  he  was  remarked  by  a  kind-hearted  gentleman, 
who  asked  him  why  he  cried.  He  replied  that  he  wanted 
to  go  to  his  uncle  in  St.  Louis,  and  that  no  one  would 
take  him,  and  that  he  would  gladly  work  his  way.  The 
meeting  was  providential,  for  there  was  not  on  the 


32  G 


THL  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


Mississippi  a  braver,  a  kinder,  or  a  better  man  tlian  Captain 
Dnrack,  the  Irish  commander  of  one  of  the  finest  steamers 
that  ever  ran  the  risk  of  a  snag  or  a  blow-up.  The  captain 
had  pity  on  the  helpless  child,  and  took  him  into  his  boat, 
where  he  at  once  made  himself  useful.  In  fact,  such  was 
the  willing  spirit  and  gentle  disposition  of  the  little  fellow, 
and  such  his  anxiety  to  oblige  everybody,  that  he  became 
a  general  favourite.  After  a  nine  days’  steaming,  the 
vessel  reached  St.  Louis,  where  Pat  landed,  high  in  hope, 
his  pockets  containing  more  money  than  he  had  ever 
before  possessed,  the  passengers  having  liberally  rewarded 
his  willing  services.  He  found  his  uncle,  but  found  him — 
a  confirmed  drunkard,  fast  sinking  into  the  grave  which 
his  own  folly  was  hourly  preparing  for  him.  Cruelly 
disappointed  in  the  hopes  he  had  so  fondly  cherished,  the 
boy  again  sought  his  friend  the  captain,  who  adopted  him, 
and  procured  for  him  the  appointment  of  assistant  steward 
in  a  steamboat  on  the  Upper  Mississippi ;  in  which  position, 
the  young  official  earned  money  rapidly,  and  acquired  the 
good  wishes  of  all  who  knew  him.  His  friend  the  captain 
was  made  his  treasurer,  likewise  the  repository  of  his  hopes 
and  intentions  respecting  his  family  at  home.  For  them 
— his  father  and  mother,  his  brother  and  two  sisters — the 
boy  offered  up  many  a  fervent  prayer  ;  and  not  unfre- 
quently  was  he  observed  on  his  knees  under  the  wheel- 
house  absorbed  in  his  devotions.  The  boat,  on  arriving  in 
port,  would  remain  for  an  interval  of  a  week  or  so,  and 
during  that  time  the  young  Irish  lad  would  attend  school, 
and  in  this  way  laid  the  foundation  of  his  education.  While 
he  was  thus  employed,  carefully  hoarding  his  money,  and 
acquiring  by  snatches  some  of  the  learning  for  which  he 
eagerly  strove,  he  was  overwhelmed  with  the  sad  news 
that  reached  him  from  home, — that  his  father  and  mother 
were  both  dead,  and  that  his  brother  and  sisters  were  in 
the  workhouse !  He  was  so  affected  by  this  distressing  in¬ 
telligence,  that  his  health  gave  way,  and  his  kind  protector 


A  POOR  IRISH  WIDOW. 


32/ 


tlie  captain  feared  lie  was  falling  into  a  consumption.  Tho 
pious  boy  unburdened  his  sorrows  to  a  good  priest  in  St. 
Louis,  who  cheered  him  by  his  advice  and  sympathy.  Tho 
vision  of  his  little  brother  and  sisters — the  latter  only  eight 
and  ten  years  old — in  the  workhouse,  haunted  him  day 
and  night.  To  rescue  them  from  that  degrading  position, 
and  bring  them  out  as  soon  as  possible,  was  now  the  great 
duty  of  his  life ;  and  with  this  additional  motive  for 
economy,  every  cent  he  could-  save  was  entrusted  to  the 
care  of  his  patron  and  treasurer  the  captain.  He  sent 
20/.  to  an  uncle  in  Ireland,  to  pay  for  the  passages  and 
outfit  of  his  brother  and  sisters,  reserving  something  for 
their  support  on  their  arrival.  Having  achieved  that  first 
grand  work,  he  next  turned  his  attention  to  the  object 
of  his  fondest  ambition — the  Priesthood  ;  and  he  resolved, 
if  possible,  at  once  to  commence  the  studies  necessary  for 
that  sacred  calling.  He  presented  himself  to  the  then 
Superior  of  the  College  of  St.  Mary,  of  the  Barens,  Mis¬ 
souri,  to  whom  he  confided  his  touching  history  and  his 
passionate  longing  for  a  religious  life.  The  good  Irish 
priest  was  deeply  impressed  by  the  simple  recital,  and 
gave  the  lad  a  free  place  in  the  seminary.  The  zealous 
student  soon  went  through  all  his  studies,  was  ordained  a 
priest,  and  became  one  of  the  most  efficient  missionaries 
of  the  diocese  of  St.  Louis.  The  children,  whom  their 
brother’s  love  had  rescued  perhaps  from  a  life  of  poverty, 
arrived  safely  ;  the  infant  sisters  were  adopted  by  a 
community  of  the  Sacred  Heart  in  the  same  diocese,  and 
the  brother  is  a  respectable  member  of  one  of  the  learned 
professions. 

An  instance  of  the  courage  and  energy  which  a  mother’s 
affection  inspires  may  be  given  in  the  simple  language  of 
the  poor  woman  who  tells  the  artless  story  of  her  trials. 
The  family  were  well  off  so  long  as  the  husband  lived  ; 
but,  when  he  died,  the  widow  was  compelled  to  accept  a 
few  pounds  in  lieu  of  valuable  improvements  which  her 


328 


TI1E  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


husband  had  effected  on  two  farms.  Left  with  four  chil¬ 
dren,  and  seeing  her  little  fund  diminishing  day  lr«  day, 
and  dreading  that  the  poor-house  would  be  their  fate  if 
she  did  not  make  some  desperate  effort  to  save  them  from 
such  a  calamity,  she  resolved  to  start  for  America  herself, 
and  there,  by  hard  work,  earn  as  much  as  would  bring 
them  out;  and  this  determination  she  resolutely  acted 
upon.  Telling,  in  happier  times  of  her  past  trials,  she 
used  these  words  : — 

£  Oh,  it  would  break  the  heart  of  a  stone  to  see  my  four 
little  children  on  the  road,  crying  after  me.  My  heart, 
sure  enough,  was  near  breaking  with  the  sorrow  that  day. 
I  ran  as  hard  as  I  could  away  from  them,  for  they  cried  and 
bawled  ;  and  it  was  “  Oh,  mammy,  mammy !  Oh,  don’t 
lave  us !  Oh  come  back,  mammy,  mammy !  ” — it  went 
through  and  through  me  like  a  swoord.  I  had  to  look 
back,  no  matter  though  I  tried  not  do  so,  and  I  thought 
the  seven  senses  would  jump  out  of  my  two  eyes.  Poor 
little  Patsey  was  then  about  four  years  old,  and  he  ran 
after  me,  and  cried  ££  Mammy,  mammy !  ”  bigger  than  the 
rest.  Sure  my  legs  couldn’t  carry  me  any  farther.  He 
kissed  me,  and  asked  me  to  give  him  another  penny  ;  he 
didn’t  know  where  I  was  going  to,  or  how  long  I’d  be 
away,  poor  darling.  This  broke  my  heart  entirely — I  de¬ 
clare  to  you  I  don’t  know  how  I  got  away  from  them — it 
was  like  a  bad  drame  to  me.  Well,  we  landed  in  Quebec, 
and  I  didn’t  know  a  sowl  on  God’s  earth,  but  a  neighbour’s 

boy  of  my  own  ;  and  sure  I  thought  that  N - (meaning 

a  place  nearly  a  thousand  miles  away)  was  the  next  plough¬ 
land  to  Quebec!  They  put  me  in  a  boat,  and  I  felt  as  if  it 

took  us  months  to  come  to  N - ,  for  I  was  nearly  perished 

with  the  could  and  the  hunger.  Sure  the  cattle  passengers 
are  treated  better  than  the  Christians.  When  I  came  to 

N - ,  I  lived  with  a  farmer.  I  worked  hard  all  the  day. 

and  cried  the  most  of  the  night.  No  wonder,  for  I  was 
wanst  full  and  comfortable  at  home,  with  my  cows,  and 


SELF-SACRIFICE. 


323 


my  pigs,  and  my  liorses,  till  my  husband  died — God  rest 
his  sowl!  But,  begonnies,  in  three  months  I  was  able  to 
send  home  for  the  ouldest  little  girl — she  was  only  nine 
years  of  age.  When  she  came  out,  it  warmed  my  poor 
heart ;  but  she  was  a  great  care  to  me — I  had  to  pay  $4 
a  month  for  her  boord,  and  that  was  hard  enough.  After 
a  time  I  says  to  myself,  “this  will  never  do  ;  paying  $4  a 
month  won’t  help  me  to  bring  out  the  rest  of  the  children, 
poor  things so  I  went  and  looked  out  for  another  place, 
and  God  sent  me  one.  I  hired  as  a  cook,  and  the  little  girl 
was  taken  to  nurse  the  babby  for  her  boord.  I  took  great 
courage  then  entirely,  and  in  half  a  year  more  I  sent  for 
another  of  the  children.  But  I  axed  the  priest — wdio  was 
from  my  own  place  at  home — to  lend  me  the  loan  of  the 
passages  for  the  other  two,  and  I  would  pay  him,  as  sure  as 
the  Lord  was  in  heaven.  He  did,  sure  enough,  trust  me 
with  the  money,  and  so  he  might :  and  may  the  Heavens 
be  his  bed  for  that  same,  amen!  The  three  landed  safe 
into  my  arms ;  then  I  felt  I  was  a  happy  woman — and  I 
cried  that  night  at  my  prayers — but  it  was  not  like  the 
scalding  tears  on  the  road,  when  I  was  laving  them,  and 
every  step  was  like  tareing  the  heart  clane  out  of  me  : 
them  tears,  that  night,  did  me  good.  The  children  were 
soon  able  to  earn  for  themselves,  and  now,  thanks  be  to 
the  Lord!  we  are  all  comfortable  and  happy — no  thanks 
to  the  villain  of  a  landlord  for  that  same  ;  and  the  big- 
boy,  the  Lord  mark  him  to  grace!  is  now  able  to  read 
his  fine  books  of  Greek  and  Latin,  and  knows  more  than 
Murty  Dermody,  the  schoolmaster  in  our  parts.  Oh,  the 
health  was  a  grand  thing ;  that  and  the  help  of  the  Lord, 
glory  be  to  his  holy  name !  got  me  through ;  for,  if  I  had 
a  pain  or  an  ache,  the  fear  would  come  on  me — and  what 
would  become  of  the  children  ?  ’Twas  hard  work  enough  ; 
but  sure  the  Lord  fits  the  back  to  the  burthen.’ 

‘It  would  be  quite  impossible,’  said  a  Sister  of  Mercy, 
of  New  York,  ‘to  relate  half  the  instances  of  heroic  sa- 


330 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


orifices  made  for  parents  or  other  relatives  by  Irish  girls 
that  come  to  our  knowledge.’  Not  the  less  heroic,  that 
they  are  entirely  divested  of  dramatic  interest  or  sen¬ 
sational  attraction.  Hannah  Finn,  a  poor  girl  from  the 
county  of  Limerick,  was  not  just  the  person  or  the  type 
a  novelist  or  a  poet  would  have  chosen  for  story  or  for 
verse ;  and  yet  her  life  was  one  of  the  most  complete  self- 
sacrifice.  At  home  she  had  toiled  on  a  farm,  and  wras 
therefore  unaccustomed  to  house-work  ;  yet,  on  her  arrival 
in  New  York,  whither  she  came  in  order  that  she  might 
more  effectually  assist  the  old  people  whom  she  could  not 
bring  with  her,  she  hired  herself  as  ‘cook’s  helper’  in  one 
of  its  hotels,  preferring  that  situation  to  an  easier  place, 
that  she  might  earn  higher  wrages,  and  thus  have  more  to 
send  to  her  parents,  to  whose  comfort  she  devoted  her  life. 
Twice  a  year  she  sent  to  them  all  the  money  she  had 
saved,  and  always  to  the  care  of  the  parish  priest.  In  the 
midst  of  her  hard  patient  toil  she  received  the  sad  tidings 
of  her  father  being  obliged  ‘to  leave  the  land,’  at  which 
her  heart  was  sorely  troubled.  But  she  only  toiled  the 
harder,  and  saved  the  more.  On  the  next  occasion  she 
wTas  sending  money,  the  Sister  who  wrote  the  letter  for 
her  wished  to  direct  it  to  the  place  indicated  by  the  girls 
mother — the  village  to  which  the  landless  couple  had 
removed ;  but  Hannah  persisted  in  sending  it  to  the  care 
of  her  former  pastor,  declaring  that  she  would  not  send  a 
penny  of  her  money  to  any  one  else.  She  continued  to  send 
her  earnings  regularly  home  as  long  as  the  old  people 
lived ;  and  soon  after  their  death— her  mission  being  now 
accomplished — she  herself  died  of  dropsy.  To  the  charity 
of  others  she  was  indebted  for  assistance  during  her  last 
illness,  she  having  given  everything  to  her  parents,  and 
reserved  nothing  for  herself.  The  story  of  Hannah  Finn, 
the  poor  county  Limerick  girl,  the  patient  drudge  in  the 
.New  York  kitchen,  is  that  of  many  an  Irish  girl  in  America, 
to  which  they  have  emigrated  rather  with  the  purpose 


THE  AMOUNT  SENT. 


331 


of  helping  those  at  home  than  of  advancing  their  own 
fortunes. 

When  a  passage  is  paid  for  by  an  Irish  emigrant  to 
bring  out  a  member  of  the  family,  it  is  the  custom,  when 
sending  the  ^jcket,  to  accompany  it  with  a  few  pounds  to 
defray  incidental  expenses. 

As  a  rule,  those  who  are  newly-come  send  more  and 
make  greater  sacrifices  to  bring  out  their  relatives,  or  to 
assist  them  at  home,  than  those  who  have  been  longer  in 
the  country  :  the  wants  of  the  family  in  the  old  country 
are  more  vividly  present  to  the  mind  of  the  recent  emi- 
giant,  and  perhaps  the  affections  are  warmer  and  stronger 
than  in  after  years,  when  time  and  distance,  and  the  cares 
or  distractions  of  a  new  existence,  have  insensibly  dulled 
the  passionate  longings  of  yore.  But  thousands — many, 
many  thousands — of  Irish  girls  have  devoted,  do  devote, 
and  will  devote  their  lives,  and  sacrifice  every  woman’s 
hope,  to  the  holiest,  because  the  most  unselfish,  of  all  affec¬ 
tions — that  of  family  and  kindred. 

‘I  would  say,  from  my  own  experience,  as  agent  and 
otherwise/  remarked  an  agent  in  a  New  England  State, 
that  emigration  will  never  cease  with  Irish  families,  as 
long  as  any  portion  of  them  remain  at  each  side  of  the 
Atlantic,  and  as  long  as  those  at  this  side  find  means  to 
send  for  those  they  left  behind — or  so  long  as  the  Irish 
nature  remains  what  it  is ;  and  I  must  say  I  can’t  see  much 
change  in  it  as  yet.’ 

That  the  amount  of  money  sent  from  America,  includ¬ 
ing  the  British  provinces  to  Ireland,  cannot  be  far  from 
24,000,000/.  I  feel  assured.  The  Commissioners  of  Emi¬ 
gration,  in  their  report  of  18G3,  return  the  amount  as 
12,042,000/.  But  they  say  it  would  not  be  unreasonable  to 
estimate  the  amount,  of  which  there  are  no  returns,  as  half 
as  much  again  as  that  of  which  there  are  returns.  Taking  this 
rather  moderate  estimate,  the  gross  amount  to  the  close  of 
1802  would  reach  19,000,000/.  That  at  least  a  million  a 


332 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


year  lias  been  sent  since  then,  must  be  assumed.  For 
last  year — 18G6 — the  Commissioners  put  down  the  amount 
at  less  than  half  a  million.  But  I  am  aware  that,  for  that 
year,  one  bank  or  society  in  New  York — the  Irish  Emi¬ 
grant  Society — remitted  over  100,000/.  to  Ireland,  and 
that  some  130,000/.,  was  sent  by  agents  in  Boston  whom 
I  could  name.  Here,  then,  is  more  than  half  the  entire 
amount  of  which  the  Commissioners  have  any  official 
knowledge.  In  many  cities  I  personally  know  bankers  or 
agents  who  sent  amounts  varying  from  20,000/.  to  30,000/.; 
and  there  is  scarcely  a  place  of  any  importance,  or  in 
which  there  is  an  Irish  population,  however  inconsider¬ 
able,  from  which  some  contribution  does  not  go  to  the 
old  country,  for  one  purpose  or  another.  If,  then,  we  add 
a  million  a  year  to  the  nineteen  millions  estimated  by 
the  Emigration  Commissioners,  we  have,  up  to  the  1st  of 
January  1868,  the  amazing  sum  of  24,000,000/.  sent  by  the 
Irish  abroad  to  their  relatives  at  home.*  In  the  history 
of  the  world  there  is  nothing  to  match  this.  It  is  a  fact 
as  glorious  as  stupendous,  and  may  well'  stand  against  the 
sneers  and  calumnies  of  a  century. 


*  Reit  ittances  from  the  Irish  in  Australia  must  be  included  in  the  gross  result. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


The  Character  of  Irish  Women  in  America— An  Unwelcome 
Baptism — The  Universal  Testimony — Shadows — Perils  to  Fe¬ 
male  Virtue — Irish  Girls  ;  their  Value  to  the  Race. 

QUESTION  of  unspeakable  importance  may  be  thus 


put, — is  it  true  that  Irish  women  maintain  in  America 


their  traditional  reputation  for  virtue  ?  Unhesitatingly, 
it  must  be  answered  in  the  affirmative.  Whatever  estimate 
Americans  may  form  of  their  Irish  fellow-citizens,  be  that 
estimate  favourable  or  unfavourable,  there  is  but  one 
opinion  as  to  the  moral  character  of  Irish  women.  Their 
reputation  for  purity  does  not  rest  on  the  boastful  asser¬ 
tions  of  those  who  either  regard  all  matters  concerning 
their  race  or  country  from  a  favourable  point  of  view,  or 
who,  to  gratify  a  natural  feeling,  would  wilfully  exaggerate, 
or  possibly  misstate  a  fact :  it  is  universally  admitted. 
Were  it  otherwise — were  this  reputation  not  well-founded, 
sad  indeed  would  be  the  calamity  to  the  Irish  in  America, 
— to  their  character,  position,  future — to  them  and  to 
their  descendants.  Happily,  no  such  calamity  is  likely  to 
befall  the  Irish  in  America,  as  the  loss  to  the  Irish  woman 
of  her  pre-eminent  reputation  for  purity  and  honour. 
Prejudices,  strong  prejudices,  there  are  in  the  States,  as  in 
all  countries  in  which  diversity  of  race  and  religion  exists  ; 
and  where  this  diversity  comprehends  race  and  religion  in 
the  same  individuals,  these  prejudices  are  certain  to  be  the 
stronger  and  the  more  deeply  rooted.  The  Irish  Catholic 


331 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


lias  to  contend  against  this  double  prejudice,  which  never¬ 
theless  is  not  powerful  enough  to  interfere  with  the  con¬ 
viction,  indeed  admission,  as  to  the  moral  character  of  the 
women  of  that  country  and  that  faith.  The  poor  Irish 
emigrant  girl  may  possibly  be  rude,  undisciplined,  awkward 
— just  arrived  in  a  strange  land,  with  all  the  rugged 
simplicity  of  her  peasant’s  training ;  but  she  is  good  and 
honest.  Nor,  as  she  rapidly  acquires  the  refinement  in¬ 
separable  from  an  improved  condition  of  life,  and  daily 
association  with  people  of  cultivated  manners,  does  she 
catch  the  contagion  of  the  vices  of  the  great  centres  of 
wealth  and  luxury.  Whatever  her  position, — and  it  is 
principally  amongst  the  humble  walks  of  life  the  mass  of 
the  Irish  are  still  to  be  found, — she  maintains  this  one 
noble  characteristic — purity.  In  domestic  service  her  merit 
is  fully  recognised.  Once  satisfied  of  the  genuineness  of 
her  character,  an  American .  family  will  trust  in  her 
implicitly ;  and  not  only  is  there  no  locking  up  against 
her,  but  everything  is  left  in  her  charge.  Occasionally  she 
may  be  hot  tempered,  difficult  to  be  managed,  perhaps  a 
little  ‘  turbulent  ’ — especially  when  her  country  is  sneered 
at,  or  her  faith  is  wantonly  ridiculed;  but  she  is  cheerful 
and  laborious,  virtuous  and  faithful. 

An  instance  of  very  legitimate  ‘  turbulence  ’  occurred 
not  long  since  in  one  of  the  most  rising  of  the  great 
Western  cities.  There  lived,  as  a  ‘help/  in  the  house  of 
a  Protestant  family,  an  intelligent  and  high-spirited  Irish 
girl,  remarkable  for  her  exemplary  conduct,  and  the  zeal 
with  which  she  discharged  the  duties  of  her  position. 
Kate  acted  as  a  mother  to  a  young  brother  and  sister, 
whom  she  was  bringing  up  with  the  greatest  care ;  and  a 
happy  girl  was  Kate  when  she  received  good  tidings  of 
their  progress  in  knowledge  and  piety.  Kate,  like  many 
other  people  in  the  world,  had  her  special  torment,  and 
that  special  torment  was  a  playful-minded  preacher  who 
visited  at  the  house,  and  who  looked  upon  ‘  Bridget  ’ — he 


AN  UNWELCOME  BAPTISM. 


335 


would  call  her  Bridget — as  a  fair  butt  for  the  exercise  of 
his  pleasant  wit,  of  which  he  was  justly  proud.  It  was 
Kate’s  duty  to  attend  table ;  and  no  sooner  did  she  make 
her  appearance  in  the  dining-room,  than  the  playful 
preacher  commenced  his  usual  fun,  which  would  be  some¬ 
what  in  this  fashion :  ‘  Well,  Bridget,  my  girl !  when  did 
you  pray  last  to  the  Virgin  Mary  ?  Tell  me,  Bridget,  when 
were  you  with  Father  Pat  ?  What  did  you  give  him, 
Bridget  ?  What  did  the  old  fellow  ask  for  the  absolution 
this  time  ?  Now,  I  guess  it  was  ten  cents  for  the  small  sins, 
and  $1  for  the  thumpers!  Come  now,  Bridget,  tell  me 
what  penance  did  that  priest  of  yours  give  you  ?  ’  Thus 
would  the  agreeable  jester  pelt  the  poor  Irish  girl  with  his 
generous  pleasantries,  to  the  amusement  of  the  thoughtless, 
but  to  the  serious  annoyance  of  the  fair-minded,  who  did 
not  like  to  see  her  feelings  so  wantonly  wounded.  The 
mistress  of  the  house  mildly  remonstrated  with  her  ser¬ 
vant’s  lively  tormentor,  though  she  did  not  herself  admire 
£ Bridget’s 5  form  of  prayer,  and  was  willing  to  regard 
*  Father  Pat’s  ’  absolution  as  a  matter  of  bargain  and  sale. 
But  the  wit  should  have  his  way.  £  Bridget  ’  was  a  hand¬ 
some  girl,  and  the  rogue  liked  to  see  the  fire  kindle  in  her 
grey  eye,  and  the  hot  blood  mantle  over  her  fair  round 
cheek  ;  and  then  the  laughter  of  his  admirers  was  such 
delightful  incense  to  his  vanity,  as  peal  after  peal  told 
how  successfully  the  incorrigible  wag  c  roasted  Bridget.’ 
On  one  memorable  day,  however,  his  love  of  the  humor¬ 
ous  carried  him  just  too  far.  A  large  company  was  as¬ 
sembled  round  the  hospitable  table  of  the  mistress  of  the 
1  louse.  The  preacher  was  present,  and  was  brimming  over 
with  merriment.  Kate  entered  the  room,  bearing  a  large 
tureen  of  steaming  soup  in  her  hands.  £  Ho,  ho,  Bridget ! 
— how  are  you,  Bridget?  Well,  Bridget,  what  did  you 
pay  Father  Pat  for  absolution  this  time?  Come  to  me, 
Bridget,  and  I  will  give  you  as  many  dollars  as  will  set 
you  all  straight  with  the  old  fellow  for  the  next  six  months, 


83C  THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 

and  settle  your  account  with  purgatory  too.  Now,  Bridget, 
tell  us  how  many  cents  for  each  sin  ? 5  The  girl  had  just 
reached  the  preacher  as  he  finished  his  little  joke  ;  and  if 
he  wished  to  see  the  Irish  eye  flash  out  its  light,  and  the 
Irish  blood  burn  in  the  cheek,  he  had  an  excellent  oppor¬ 
tunity  for  enjoying  that  treat.  It  was  Bridget’s  turn  to 
be  playful.  Stopping  next  to  his  chair,  and  looking  him 
steadily  in  his  face,  while  she  grasped  the  tureen  of  rich 
green-pea  soup  more  firmly  in  her  hands,  she  said  :  ‘  Now, 
sir,  I  often  asked  you  to  leave  me  alone,  and  not  mind 
me,  and  not  to  insult  me  or  my  religion,  what  no  real 
gentleman  would  do  to  a  poor  girl ;  and  now,  sir,  as  you 
want  to  know  what  I  pay  for  absolution,  here’s  my  an¬ 
swer  !  ’  and,  suiting  the  action  to  the  word,  she  flung  the 
hot  steaming  liquid  over  the  face,  neck,  breast — entire  per¬ 
son — of  the  playful  preacher  !  A  ‘  header  ’  in  one  of  Mr. 
Boucicault’s  dramas  could  not  have  produced  a  more  start¬ 
ling  effect  than  did  this  unexpected  baptism.  The  con¬ 
dition  of  the  preacher  may  best  be  described  as  abject : 
morally  as  well  as  physically,  he  was  overwhelmed.  Ixate 
rushed  to  her  room,  locked  herself  in,  and  relieved  her 
excitement  in  a  cry — ‘  as  if  her  heart  would  break.’  In  a 
short  time  her  mistress  tapped  at  the  door,  told  her  to 
come  out,  that  all  w7as  right,  and  that  Mr.  Blank  was  sorry 
that  he  had  annoyed  her — as,  no  doubt,  he  was.  The  sen¬ 
timent — the  generous  American  sentiment — was  in  Kate’s 
favour,  as  she  might  have  perceived  in  the  manner  of  the 
guests.  For  the  poor  preacher,  it  may  be  said  that  the 
soup  ‘  spoiled  his  dinner  ’  for  that  day.  He  did  not  make 
his  appearance  again  for  some  time ;  but  wKen  he  did,  it 
was  as  an  altered  and  much-improved  gentleman,  who 
appeared  to  have  lost  all  interest  in  the  religious  pecu¬ 
liarities  of  Kate,  whom,  strange  to  say,  he  never  more 
called  by  the  name  of  Bridget.  The  warm  bath,  so  vigor¬ 
ously  administered,  had  done  him  much  service — Kate 
said,  ‘  a  power  of  good.’ 


THE  GRANDEST  TESTIMONY  OF  ALL. 


337 


When  once  her  worth  is  recognised,  the  most  unlimited 
trust  is  placed  in  the  Irish  girl.  There  are  thousands  of 
houses  in  the  United  States  in  which  everything  is  left  to 
her  charge  and  under  her  control ;  and,  unless  in  some 
rare  instances,  in  which  fanaticism  is  more  than  a  match 
for  common  sense,  the  more  devoted  she  is  to  the  practices 
of  her  religion,  the  more  she  is  respected  and  confided  in 
by  those  with  whom  she  lives.  Occasional  betrayals  of 
trust  there  may  be,  for  humanity  is  not  perfect ;  but  as  a 
rule,  broad  and  sweeping,  confidence  and  kindness  are  re¬ 
warded  with  unswerving  fidelity. 

In  the  hotels  of  America  the  Irish  girl  is  admittedly 
indispensable.  Through  the  ordeal  of  these  fiery  furnaces 
of  temptation  she  passes  unscathed.  There,  where  honesty 
and  good  conduct  are  most  essential,  she  is  found  equal 
to  the  test,  while  in  cheerful  willing  industry  none  can 
surpass  her.  Such  is  the  testimony  which  is  readily  borne 
to  the  Irish  girl  in  every  State  of  the  Union. 

I  remember  asking  one  of  the  best-known  hotel  proprie¬ 
tors  of  America,  why  it  was  that  all  the  young  women 
in  the  establishment  were  Irish,  and  his  replying — ‘The 
thing  is  very  simple :  the  Irish  girls  are  industrious, 
willing,  cheerful,  and  honest — they  work  hard,  and  they 
are  strictly  moral.  I  should  say  that  is  quite  reason 
enough.’  I  agreed  with  him. 

There  are  testimonies,  also,  borne  to  her  in  a  very  differ¬ 
ent  spirit,  but  equally  honouring — those  extorted  from 
the  baffled  tempter,  who  finds  all  his  arts  of  seduction  fail 
before  the  seven-fold  shield  of  an  austerity  as  unexpected 
as  unwished-for.  Nothing  is  more  common  than  for  one 
who  has  failed  in  his  attempts  against  the  honour  of  an 
Irish  girl  to  warn  his  companions  from  a  similar  folly — 
‘Oh,  hang  her! — don’t  lose  your  time  with  her;  she  is 

one  of  those  d - d  Irish  girls — the  priest  has  a  hold  of 

her — she  goes  to  confession,  and  all  that  kind  of  nonsense 
— don’t  lose  your  time,  for  it’s  no  use.’  Quite  true  :  temp- 

15 


338 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


tations  assail  her  in  vain ;  in  her  faith  and  piety  she  is 
invincible. 

The  Irish  woman  is  naturally  religious ;  the  fervent 
character  of  her  mind  is  adapted  to  devotional  enthusiasm  ; 
and  in  the  practices  of  her  faith  she  finds  occupation  for 
her  leisure  time,  as  well  as  strength  for  her  soul  and  con¬ 
solation  for  her  heart.  If  she  happen  to  be  in  a  new 
mission,  where  everything — church,  school,  asylum,  hospi¬ 
tal — is  to  be  erected,  she  enters  into  the  holy  task  with 
congenial  ardour.  To  build  up,  finish,  or  decorate  a 
church — to  her,  the  House  of  God  and  Temple  of  her  An¬ 
cient  Faith — she  contributes  with  generous  hand.  It  is 
the  same  in  a  long-established  parish,  whose  spiritual 
necessities  keep  pace  with  its  growing  population ;  there, 
also,  the  Irish  girl  is  unfailing  in  her  liberality.  To  her 
there  is  no  idea  of  making  a  sacrifice  of  her  means ;  she 
gives  as  well  as  a  pleasure  as  from  a  feeling  of  duty.  Ap¬ 
peal  to  her  in  the  name  of  her  religion  or  country,  for  the 
sick  or  the  suffering,  and  seldom  indeed  is  it  that  there  is 
no  response  from  her  purse  and  her  heart.  The  Irish  girl 
— whether  in  store,  factory,  hotel,  or  domestic  employ¬ 
ment — takes  pride  in  renting  a  seat  in  her  church,  which 
she  has  so  materially  helped  to  erect ;  and  in  nearly  every 
city  in  the  Union  she  may  be  seen  occupying  her  place  in 
her  pew,  neat  in  person,  modest  in  deportment,  and  col¬ 
lected  in  manner — as  true  an  honour  to  her  race  and 
country  as  though  the  blood  of  princes  flowed  in  her  veins. 
Thus  is  maintained  over  her  that  religious  control  which 
is  her  own  best  preservative  against  danger,  and  which, 
while  forming  and  strengthening  her  character,  enables  her 
to  bring  a  salutary  influence  to  bear  upon  her  male  re¬ 
latives,  and  in  case  of  her  marriage — a  contingency  most 
probable — upon  her  husband  and  children.  And  this  is 
how  the  purity  and  piety  of  the  Irish  women  are  of  price¬ 
less  value  to  the  Irish  in  America. 

To  assert  that  there  are  no  dark  shadows  to  this  picture, 


339 


SHADOWS. 


no  murky  tints  to  throw  out  in  stronger  relief  its  pre¬ 
vailing  brightness  of  colour,  would  be  to  assert  an  untruth 
at  once  foolish  and  mischievous.  There  are  dark  shadows, 
there  are  murky  tints — there  are  exceptions  to  a  rulo 
which  is  almost  universal.  Under  ordinary  circumstances 
the  rule  is  absolutely  in  favour  of  the  high  moral  character 
of  Irish  women  in  America  ;  but  there  are  in  some  of  the 
great  cities  circumstances  not  favourable  to  female  virtue  ; 
and  these  are  attended  with  occasional  injury  to  the  repu¬ 
tation  of  Irish  girls. 

It  is  well  known  that  America,  while  the  home  of  the 
strong,  the  adventurous,  the  honest  and  industrious  of  the 
emigrants  from  Europe,  is  also  the  asylum  of  the  broken- 
down  and  the  unfortunate.  Female  frailty  seeks  refuge 
from  exposure  in  those  convenient  hiding-places,  the  great 
cities  of  the  Western  World.  Nor  is  it  always  the  case 
that  a  first  fall  is  atoned  for  by  a  future  of  virtue,  or  even 
a  career  of  prudence  ;  and  thus  the  sad  wreck  which  has 
happened  at  one  side  of  the  ocean  is  unfairly  counted 
against  the  moral  character  of  the  race  at  the  other.  Here 
then,  in  the  first  place,  is  frailty  imported  from  the  old 
country,  and  under  circumstances  not  altogether  favourable 
to  reformation  and  moral  strength. 

Then,  without  seeking  other  evidence  than  may  be  found 
in  public  records,  and  in  the  statute-book  of  the  United 
States,  it  can  be  shown  how  fatal  to  youth  and  inex¬ 
perience  has  been  the  long  passage  in  the  emigrant  sail¬ 
ing  ship.  As  mentioned  elsewhere,  Congress  was  com¬ 
pelled,  so  late  as  1860,  to  pass  a  law  for  the  protection  of 
female  passengers  from  the  foul  and  systematic  attempts 
of  officers  and  seamen  to  effect  their  ruin.  Regulations 
have  been  made,  rules  laid  down,  penalties  proclaimed, 
notices  posted,  partitions  and  barriers  erected  ;  but  all  pre¬ 
cautionary  measures  have  been,  in  too  many  instances, 
found  ineffectual  to  counteract  the  watchful  wickedness  of 
evil  men,  and  the  utter  defencelessness  of  women  exposed 


310 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


to  the  perils  of  a  protracted  sea-voyage.  Even  so  late  as 
I860  the  Government  Commissioner  of  Emigration  reports 
to  the  Secretary  of  State  that  these  protective  laws  have 
been  systematically  violated,  and  calls  for  more  stringent 
measures.  Nor  when  the  poor  Irish  girl  has  escaped  her 
enemy  on  ship-board,  and  reached  the  shelter  of  Castle 
Garden,  is  she  entirely  in  safety ;  and  not  rarely  has  it 
occurred  that  the  indignant  officials  have  beaten  back  the 
prowling  wolf,  as  he  sought  to  get  his  intended  victim  with¬ 
in  his  grasp.  Numerous  instances,  not  alone  of  seduction 
on  board  ship,  but  of  lawless  violence,  are  on  record  ;  but 
the  Act  of  1860  is  of  itself  sufficient  evidence  of  the  fact 
that  protection  was  required,  without  the  necessity  of  its 
illustration  by  harrowing  and  revolting  details. 

Terribly  suggestive  of  ruin  to  female  honour  were  the 
words  addressed  by  Mr.  Thurlow  Weed  in  1864,  on  the 
occasion  of  laying  the  foundation  stone  of  the  Emigrant 
Hospital  at  Ward’s  Island.  Referring  to  the  helpless 
condition  of  the  emigrant  before  the  present  admirable 
system  was  organised  in  New  York,  he  says  :  *  Families 
were  frequently  plundered  of  all  the  money  they  possessed, 
and  left  to  the  charity  of  the  city.  Young  and  friendless 
females  coming  from  abroad,  to  find  their  friends,  or 
seeking  employment,  were  not  unfrequently  outraged 3 
Again  :  ‘  Thousands  of  emigrants  arrived  with  railroad 
tickets  purchased  abroad,  for  which  they  had  paid  not  only 
double  and  treble  the  regular  fare,  but  upon  their  arrival 
here,  they  found  themselves  witli  bogus  tickets  and  bogus 
drafts.  Innocent  and  unprotected  girls  came  consigned  to 
houses  of  prostitution.3  Mr.  Weed  was  referring  to  what 
frequently  occurred  some  years  before  ;  but  it  is  notorious 
that  similar  evils  have  existed  at  a  later  period,  and  are  not 
yet  effectually  suppressed.  The  panderers  to  the  lust  of 
great  cities  are  constantly  on  the  watch  to  drag  into  their 
dens  of  infamy  the  young,  the  innocent,  and  the  unsuspect¬ 
ing.  There  is  scarcely  a  House  of  Protection  under  the  care 


PERILS  TO  FEMALE  VIRTUE. 


3  n 

of  a  Religious  Order  in  America,  wliicli  cannot  record  cases 
of  young  girls  snatched  from  the  jaws  of  danger.  Many, 
it  is  true,  are  saved ;  but  what  can  the  helpless  do  against 
the  snares  and  traps  and  frauds  of  those  who  live  by  the 
vilest  crime  ?  The  contest  is  unequal :  the  lamb  is  helpless 
in  the  talons  of  the  vulture,  or  the  fangs  of  the  wolf.  As  a 
single  instance  of  the  peril  awaiting  the  unsuspecting,  may 
be  mentioned  that  of  a  young  and  handsome  Irish  girl  who 
was  lately  trapped  into  hiring,  in  a  Western  city,  with  a 
person  of  infamous  character.  She  was  fortunately  ob¬ 
served  by  a  poor  old  Irish  woman,  who,  knowing  the  peril 
in  which  the  young  creature  stood,  boldly  rushed  to  her 
rescue,  and,  at  personal  risk  to  herself,  literally  tore  the 
prey  from  the  grasp  of  the  enemy.  The  rescued  girl  was 
taken  to  the  Refuge  in  the  Convent  of  Mercy,  where  she 
was  at  once  in  safety  ;  and  though  she  lost  all  her  clothes, 
save  those  in  which  she  then  stood,  she  congratulated  her¬ 
self  that  she  had  never  crossed  the  threshold  of  a  house  of 
ill-fame. 

Perils  by  sea,  and  perils  by  land,  is  it  wonderful  that 
fraud  and  violence  so  often  triumph  over  innocence  and 
helplessness? — that  human  wrecks  occasionally  strew  the 
highways  of  the  centres  of  wealth,  of  luxury,  and  of  vice  ? 

I  have  in  another  place  referred  to  the  evils  of  over¬ 
crowding,  in  lowering  the  tone  of  the  community,  and 
exposing  the  humbler  classes  to  dangers  of  various  kinds, 
moral  as  well  as  sanitary.  Besides  the  temptations  of 
poverty  and  passion,  of  youth  and  thoughtlessness,  there 
is  the  terrible  mischief  of  daily  and  hourly  association  in 
the  densely-populated  lodging-house,  in  which  it  too  often 
happens  that,  even  with  the  best  intentions,  the  most 
ordinary  decency  cannot  be  maintained.  There  is  not  a 
physician  or  a  clergyman  in  New  York 'who  will  not  say 
that  this  system  is  fraught  with  danger  to  the  health  of 
soul  and  body.  It  is  in  the  last  degree  unfavourable  to 
the  development  of  virtue ;  and  the  same  state  of  things, 


342 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


wherever  it  is  to  be  found,  whether  East  or  West,  North 
or  South,  must  be  productive  of  evil  fruits. 

There  are  also  the  natural  consequences  of  the  vicious 
habits  of  parents — the  drunkenness  of  the  father  or  the 
mother,  more  usually  the  former — so  fatal  to  the  character 
of  their  children.  This  habit  alone  is  quite  as  destructive 
in  its  consequences  as  orphanage,  which,  from  this  more 
than  any  other  cause,  is  so  prevalent  in  America,  wdiere,  at 
least  in  the  towns,  the  average  duration  of  human  life — 
especially  that  of  the  hard-working  classes  who  are  not 
temperate — is  so  •  short.  Then  there  is  vanity,  love  of 
dressy  and  perhaps  individual  perversity,  acted  upon 
through  all  the  evil  influences  of  great  cities — with  the 
wiles  and  snares  of  the  fowler  ever  spread  for  the  destruc¬ 
tion  of  the  fluttering  bird.  These  and  other  causes  will 
explain  why  it  is,  that  in  some,  yet  comparatively  few, 
places  in  America  a  certain  percentage  of  women  of  bad 
repute  are  necessarily  of  Irish  origin. 

But,  however  deplorable  that,  in  any  part  of  the  United 
States,  Irish  women  should  form  an  appreciable  percentage 
of  the  whole  of  the  class  of  unfortunates,  still,  when  com¬ 
pared  with  the  Irish  female  population  of  those  great  cities, 
whether  Irish  born  or  of  Irish  extraction,  the  number  is 
small  indeed.  In  very  many  places  the  proportion  is  in- 
finitessimal  ;  and  there  are  cities  and  districts  throughout 
the  States  in  which  there  has  never  been  known  an  instance 
of  an  Irish  girl  having  come  to  shame — in  wdiich  the 
character  of  the  Irish  woman  is  the  pride  and  glory  of  all 
who  belong  to  the  old  country,  or  have  a  drop  of  genuine 
Irish  blood  in  their  veins. 

I  have  frequently  marked  with  interest,  how  the  counte¬ 
nance  of  the  faithful  pastor  brightened  with  enthusiasm  as 
the  good  conduct  of  the  female  portion  of  his  flock  was 
the  theme  of  conversation.  I  remember  an  excellent  Irish 
priest — one  of  those  men  who  are  justly  looked  upon  as 
the  fathers  of  their  people- —describing  the  character  of  his 


IRISH  GIRLS— TIIEIR  VALUE  TO  THE  RACE.  343 

congregation.  It  was  in  a  town  of  considerable  importance, 
eminent  for  its  manufacturing  industry,  and  in  whicli  the 
Irish  element  was  particularly  strong.  ‘Good,  sir!  the 
Irish  girls  good!  Why,  sir,’  said  their  pastor,  ‘the  fall  of 
an  Irish  girl  in  this  town  is  as  rare  as — as — as  a  white 
blackbird  ’ — and  a  pleasant  laugh  imparted  additional 
raciness  to  an  illustration  which  its  author  regarded  as 
both  neat  and  happy.  ‘  Our  Irish  girls  are  an  honour  to 
their  country  and  their  race — they  are  the  glory  of  the 
Church  ;  to  their  influence  we  look  for  much  of  what  we 
hope  for  in  the  future.  They  will  yet  lift  the  men  to 
their  level  by  the  force  of  their  example.’  This  was  the 
grave  testimony  borne  by  a  Western  Bishop.  ‘  They  are 
the  salvation  of  their  race  in  this  country — the  salt  of  the 
earth,’  said  an  enthusiastic  Southern  Prelate.’  The  salt  of 
the  earth,  indeed  ;  and  if  the  salt  should  lose  its  savour, 
wherewith  shall  the  earth  be  salted  ?  ‘  My  belief  is,  that 

the  Holy  Ghost  has  them  in  special  charge,  for  the  good 
they  do,  and  the  evil  they  prevent.’  This  was  the  wind-up 
of  a  long  eulogium  pronounced  upon  Irish  girls  by  an  emi¬ 
nent  ecclesiastic,  who  spoke  with  all  the  earnestness  and 
gravity  of  the  most  profound  conviction. 

That  would  be  a  sad  day  for  the  Irish  in  America  when 
Irish  women  lost  the  reputation  which,  notwithstanding 
the  evil  produced  by  adverse  circumstances  and  special 
causes,  they  universally  enjoy.  The  Irish  nature  is  im¬ 
petuous  and  impulsive  and  passionate,  and  the  young  are 
too  often  liable  to  confound  license  with  the  display  of 
manly  independence  ;  hence  even  the  light  yoke  of  the 
Church  is  occasionally  too  burdensome  for  the  high-mettled 
Irish  youth,  in  an  especial  degree  the  American-born  sons  of 
Irish  parents.  In  what,  then,  if  not  in  the  beautiful  faith 
and  piety,  the  unblemished  purity  of  Irish  women — in  the 
never-failing  example  of  sister,  wife,  and  mother — are 
those  who  love  the  race  to  look  for  a  counteracting 
influence  to  a  freedom  fraught  with  danger,  and  for  that 


344 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


strong  yet  delicate  chain  of  gold  with  which  to  bind  the 
wayward  and  the  headstrong  to  the  Church  of  their  fathers? 
As  yet,  as  possibly  for  some  time  to  come,  congregations  are 
more  numerous  than  churches,  Hocks  than  pastors,  children 
than  schools  or  teachers — such  schools  and  teachers  as  are 
most  requii  ed ;  and  in  the  meantime,  until  in  churches 
and  pastors,  schools  and  teachers,  protection  is  everywhere 
afforded  to  endangered  youth,  in  the  piety  and  purity  of 
the  sister  and  the  mother  is  there  the  best  safeguard 
against  the  risk  of  apostacy,  and  the  deadlier  blight  of 
infidelity.  Long  may  the  virtue  of  Irish  women  constitute 
one  of  the  noblest  claims  on  the  respect  and  sympathy  of 
the  generous-minded  people  of  America ! 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


The  Catholic  Church — The  Irish — The  Church  not  afraid  of 
Freedom — A  Contrast — Who  the  Persecutors  were — The  Amerh 
can  Constitution — Washington’s  Reply  to  the  Catholics — The 
First  Church  in  New  York — Boston  in  1790 — Universality  of  the 
Church — Early  Missions — Two  Great  Orders — Mrs.  Seton — Mrs. 
Seton  founds  her  Order — Early  Difficulties  and  Privations — Irish 
Sisters. 

TO  their  countrymen  throughout  the  world  the  spiritual 
condition  of  the  Irish  in  America  cannot  be  other¬ 
wise  than  a  matter  of  the  deepest  interest,  inasmuch  as 
their  material  progress  in  the  New  World  must  of  necessity, 
and  to  a  considerable  extent,  depend  on  the  moral  and 
religious  influence  brought  to  bear  upon  them  and  their 
children.  The  great  mass  of  the  Irish  in  the  "United 
States,  as  in  Ireland,  are  of  the  Catholic  faith  :  therefore, 
in  order  to  ascertain  what  is  the  spiritual  condition  of  the 
Irish  in  America,  what  the  spiritual  provision  for  them,  we 
must  enquire  as  to  the  position  and  prospects  of  the  Catho¬ 
lic  Church  in  that  country. 

But  first,  before  doing  so,  it  is  necessary  to  refer  to 
statements  which  have  been  made  by  some,  and  relied  on 
by  others,  as  to  the  alleged  falling  away  of  the  Irish  from 
the  faith  of  their  fathers.  Were  this  statement  true,  it 
should  be  a  matter  of  regret  to  every  Irishman  worthy  of 
that  name ;  for  nothing  could  be  more  calamitous  to  the 
race,  or  more  damaging  to  the  honour  of  their  country, 
than  the  loss  of  that  which  maintains  over  the  Irish  heart 
the  most  salutary  of  all  influences.  Happily  for  the  Irish 
in  America,  these  statements  are  the  result  of  exaggerated 
alarm,  or  reckless  invention. 


346 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


It  lias  been  confidently  stated  that  the  moment  the  Irish 
touch  the  free  soil  of  America,  they  lose  the  old  faith — that 
there  is  something  in  the  very  nature  of  republican  insti¬ 
tutions  fatal  to  the  Church  of  Borne.*  Admitting,  as  a  fact 
which  cannot  be  denied,  and  which  Catholics  are  them¬ 
selves  the  first  to  proclaim,  that  there  has  been  some, 
even  considerable,  falling  off  from  the  Church,  and  no 
little  indifferentism,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  there 
has  been  less  of  both  than,  from  the  circumstances  of  the 
country,  might  have  been  reasonably  expected ;  and  that 
the  same  Irish,  whose  alleged  defection  en  masse  has  been 
the  theme  of  ungenerous  triumph  to  those  whose  ‘wish 
was  father  to  the  thought,’  have  done  more  to  develop  the 
Church,  and  extend  her  dominion  throughout  the  wide 
continent  of  North  America,  than  even  the  most  devoted 
of  the  children  of  any  other  of  the  various  races  who,  with 
them,  are  merged  in  the  great  American  nation.  This 
much  may  be  freely  conceded  to  them,  even  by  those  who 
are  most  sensitively  and  justly  proud  of  what  their  own 
nationality  has  done  to  promote  the  glory  of  the  Universal 
Church.  Fortified  by  suffering  and  trial  at  home,  and 
inheritors  of  memories  which  intensify  devotion  rather 
than  weaken  fidelity,  the  Irish  brought  with  them  a  strong 
faith,  the  power  to  resist  as  well  as  the  courage  to  per¬ 
severe,  and  that  generosity  of  spirit  which  has  ever 
prompted  mankind  to  make  large  sacrifices  for  the  pro¬ 
motion  of  their  religious  belief. 

Those  who  foolishly  think,  or  pretend  to  think,  that 
there  is  something  in  republican  institutions  fatal  to  the 
extension  and  influence  of  the  Catholic  Church,  must  be 
ignorant  of,  or  wilfully  ignore,  the  evidence  of  history,  or 
what  is  going  on  in  the  world  at  the  present  day ;  or  must 
have  conceived  the  most  erroneous  impressions  concerning 
the  actual  position  of  the  Church  in  the  United  States. 
Not  only,  throughout  her  long  and  chequered  history,  has 
the  Church  flourished  under  republican  governments,  and 


THE  CIIURCIT  NOT  AFRAID  OF  FREEDOM. 


317 


that  at  this  moment  among  her  faithful  subjects  are  to  be 
found  the  most  strenuous  supporters  of  republican  institu  ¬ 
tions,  as  in  America  and  the  Catholic  Cantons  of  Switzer¬ 
land  ;  but  it  is  one  of  the  striking  characteristics  of  the 
Church — conceded  to  her  even  by  her  enemies — that  she 
has  the  marvellous  faculty  of  adapting  herself  to  every 
form  of  government,  and  to  every  description  of  human 
institution.  Instinctively  conservative — that  is,  of  those 
great  principles  which  lie  at  the  root  of  all  civil  govern¬ 
ment,  and  are  reverenced  in  every  well-ordered  state  of 
society — she  fully  appreciates  the  blessings  of  liberty,  and 
flourishes  in  vigour  under  the  very  freest  form  of  national 
constitution.  In  every  region  she  is  readily  acclimated — 
in  every  soil  she  takes  firm  hold  ;  nay,  even  where  she  is 
trampled  upon  and  persecuted,  the  sweeter  is  the  odour 
she  gives  forth. 

Her  progress  in  the  United  States  has  not  been  over  a 
path  bestrewm  with  roses  ;  but  not  only  are  the  persecu¬ 
tions  and  sufferings  of  other  days  the  glory  of  the  present 
hour,  but  they  have  given  her  strengli  to  meet  with  forti¬ 
tude,  and  endure  with  un diminished  confidence,  those 
spasmodic  outbursts  of  violence  which  are  born  of  the 
mad  frenzy  of  the  moment.  Under  the  wise  guidance  of 
able  and  sagacious  prelates,  no  less  patriots  than  churchmen 
— devoted  to  the  greatness  and  renown  of  the  noble  coun¬ 
try  of  their  birth  or  of  their  adoption — the  Catholic  Church 
is  not  only  adapting  herself  to  the  genius  of  the  American 
people,  and  in  complete  harmony  with  her  institutions, 
but,  so  far  as  her  influence  extends,  is  one  of  the  most 
efficient  means  of  maintaining  social  order  and  promoting 
public  contentment.  And  we  shall  see  how,  in  the 
moment  of  the  gravest  peril  that  ever  overtook  a  people 
or  tried  a  church,  when  others  waved  the  torch  and  rang 
the  tocsin  peal,  she  retained  her  holy  serenity  in  the 
midst  of  strife  ;  and  while  sounds  of  hate  and  fury  rever¬ 
berated  through  so-called  temples  of  religion,  she  calmly 


348 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


preached  lier  mission  of  peace  on  earth  to  men  of  good 
will. 

That  there  has  been  falling  away,  is  true — that  there 
is  indifference,  no  one  can  doubt  ;  but  the  falling  away 
is  not  what  exaggeration  .  has  represented  it  to  be,  and 
is  moreover  largely  compensated  by  the  most  valuable 
acquisitions  ;  and  the  spirit  of  indifferentism,  which  is  the 
form  of  religious  disease  most  prevalent  in  the  United 
States,  is  steadily  yielding  to  the  zeal  of  the  Church,  and 
its  fuller  and  more  perfect  organisation. 

To  appreciate  rightly  what  has  been  accomplished,  we 
must  look  back  ;  and  in  order  to  understand  what  the 
Church  had  to  contend  with,  what  obstacles  she  had  to 
surmount,  what  she  had  to  create  and  build  up,  it  is  essen¬ 
tial  that  a  sketch — for  anything  more  formal  would  be 
impossible,  and  indeed  out  of  place,  in  this  volume — should 
be  given  of  her  position  before  and  at  the  period  when  the 
emigration  from  Europe  began  seriously  to  influence  the 
population  of  the  United  States. 

So  long  as  England  retained  her  power  in  her  American 
colonies,  persecution  and  proscription  were  the  lot  of  her 
Catholic  subjects.  It  was  the  same  at  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic — cruel  laws  and  degrading  disabilities.  If  any¬ 
thing,  her  colonial  governors  and  legislators  outdid  in 
violence  and  malignity  the  policy  of  the  mother  country  ; 
for,  strange  as  it  must  appear,  and  however  dishonouring 
to  our  human  nature,  it  is  nevertheless  the  fact,  that  those 
who  fled  from  persecution,  who  braved  the  stormy  ocean 
in  frail  vessels,  to  escape  from  the  tyranny  of  a  sect  or 
a  government,  became  relentless  in  their  persecution  of 
others  who,  like  themselves,  had  hoped  to  find  a  peaceful 
home  and  a  safe  asylum  in  a  new  and  happy  country. 
The  Puritans  of  New  England  outdid,  in  their  fierce  in¬ 
tolerance,  those  whose  milder  tyranny  had  compelled 
them  to  seek  relief  in  exile,  The  contrast  offered  by  the 
different  policy  pursued  by  Catholic  and  Puritan  colonists 


A  CONTRAST. 


349 


should  put  to  sliame  those  who  are  so  lavish  in  their  accu¬ 
sations  of  Catholic  persecution.  When  the  Catholics  had 
power  or  influence,  they  proclaimed  the  broadest  toleration, 
the  fullest  liberty  to  every  sect  of  Christians ;  while,  on 
the  contrary,  not  only  were  Catholics  in  a  special  degree 
the  objects  of  persecution  in  every  colony,  and  by  every 
governor  or  legislature,  but  the  zealots  who  persecuted 
them  did  not  refrain  from  persecuting  people  of  other  de¬ 
nominations.  We  may  refer  to  the  conduct  of  the  Catholic 
settlers  of  Maryland,  and  of  the  Catholics  during  the  only 
time  they  ever  possessed  any  influence  in  the  State  of  New 
York,  and  contrast  their  enlightened  policy  with  the  laws 
against  Quakers  and  Catholics — the  latter  of  which  laws 
were  not  erased  from  the  statute-book  until  after  America 
had  accomplished  her  independence. 

The  code  of  the  New  England  colonies  was  conceived  in 
the  most  ferocious  spirit,  and  wTas  enforced  with  relent¬ 
less  severity.  A  single  extract  from  the  law  passed  at 
Plymouth  on  the  14tli  of  October  1657,  will  be  sufficient 
to  display  the  mild  and  Christian  policy  of  those  who 
themselves  had  suffered  for  conscience’  sake  : 

And  it  is  further  enacted,  that  if  any  Quaker  or  Quakers  shall  pre¬ 
sume,  after  they  have  once  suffered  what  the  law  requireth,  to  come 
into  this  jurisdiction,  every  such  male  Quaker  shall,  for  the  first 
offence,  have  one  of  his  ears  cut  off,  and  be  kept  at  work  in  the  house 
of  correction  till  he  can  be  sent  away  at  his  own  charge  ;  and  for  the 
second  offence,  shall  have  the  other  ear  cut  off,  &c.,  and  be  kept  at  the 
house  of  correction  as  aforesaid.  And  every  woman  Quaker  that 
hath  suffered  the  law  here,  that  shall  presume  to  come  into  this  juris¬ 
diction,  shall  be  severely  whipt ,  and  kept  at  the  house  of  correction 
till  she  be  sent  away  at  her  own  charge,  and  so  also  for  her  coming 
again  she  shall  be  alike  used  as  aforesaid.  And  for  every  Quaker,  he 
or  she,  that  shall  a  third  time  herein  again  offend,  they  shall  have  their 
tongues  bored  through  with  a  hot  iron,  and  kept  at  the  house  of  correc¬ 
tion  till  they  be  sent  away  at  their  own  charge. 

Tiie  offence  thus  fiendishly  punished  was  the  mere 
coming  of  any  of  these  harmless  people  within  the  jurisdic- 


350 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


tion  of  tliose  ardent  worshippers  of  human  freedom  and 
religious  liberty.  It  were  hard  to  say  whether  the  Puritan 
was  more  ferociously  in  earnest  in  his  persecution  of 
Quakers  and  Catholics,  or  in  his  extermination  of  witches 
— for  a  profound  belief  in  witchcraft  was  one  of  the  most 
striking  evidences  of  his  enlightenment  and  good  sense. 

Bancroft,  the  historian  of  America,  thus  describes  the 
state  of  things  in  the  Catholic  colony  of  Baltimore  : — 

Yet  the  happiness  of  the  colony  was  enviable.  The  persecuted  and 
the  unhappy  thronged  to  the  domains  of  the  benevolent  prince.  If 
Baltimore  was,  in  one  sense,  a  monarch — like  Miltiades  at  Chersonesus, 
and  other  founders  of  colonies  of  old — his  monarchy  was  tolerable  to 
the  exile  who  sought  for  freedom  and  repose.  Numerous  ships  found 
employment  in  his  harbours.  The  white  labourer  rose  rapidly  to  the 
condition  of  a  free  proprietor;  the  female  emigrant  was  sure  to  im¬ 
prove  her  condition,  and  the  cheerful  charities  of  home  gathered  round 
her  in  the  New  World.  . . 

Emigrants  arrived  from  every  clime ;  and  the  colonial  legislature 
extended  its  sympathies  to  many  nations,  as  well  as  to  many  sects. 
From  France  came  Huguenots;  from  Germany,  from  Holland,  from 
Sweden,  from  Finland,  I  believe  from  Piedmont,  the  children  of  mis¬ 
fortune  sought  protection  under  the  tolerant  sceptre  of  the  Homan  Catho¬ 
lic.  Bohemia  itself,  the  country  of  Jerome  and  of  Huss,  sent  forth 
their  sons,  who  at  once  were  made  citizens  of  Maryland  with  equal 
franchises.  The  empire  of  justice  and  humanity,  according  to  the 
light  of  those  days,  had  been  complete  but  for  the  sufferings  of  the 
people  called  Quakers.  Yet  they  were  not  persecuted  for  their  reli¬ 
gious  worship,  which  was  held  publicly,  and  without  interruption. 
‘  The  truth  was  received  with  reverence  and  gladness ;’  and  with 
secret  satisfaction  George  Fox  relates  that  members  of  the  legislature 
and  the  council,  persons  of  quality,  and  justices  of  the  peace,  were 
present  at  a  large  and  very  heavenly  meeting. 

This  was  in  1668,  but  in  a  few  years  after  the  arrival  of 
William  Penn,  the  Quakers  had  full  justice  done  to  them. 
In  Catholic  Maryland  there  had  been  no  ear-cropping, 
no  boring  of  tongues  with  hot  pokers — such  exhibitions  of 
brotherly  love  and  mercy  were  reserved  for  the  Puritans 
of  Plymouth. 

‘  The  apologist  of  Lord  Baltimore,’  says  Bancroft, 


351 


W1I0  THE  PERSECUTORS  WERE. 

*  could  assert  that  his  government,  in  conformity  with  his 
strict  and  repeated  injunctions,  had  never  given  disturb¬ 
ance  to  any  person  in  Maryland  for  matter  of  religion  ; 
that  the  colonists  enjoyed  freedom  of  conscience,  not  less 
than  freedom  of  person  and  estate,  as  amply  as  ever  any 
people  in  any  place  in  the  world.  The  disfranchised  friends 
of  prelacy  from  Massachusetts,  and  the  Puritan  from  Vir¬ 
ginia,  were  welcomed  to  equal  liberty  of  conscience  and  political 
rights  in  the  Roman  Catholic  province  of  Maryland .’  These 
halcyon  days  did  not  long  continue ;  for  when  the  Pro 
testants  got  the  upper  hand  in  Maryland,  they  persecu¬ 
ted  the  Catholics,  who  had  extended  toleration  and  lib¬ 
erty  to  all ! 

We  shall  now  see  how  Catholics  were  treated  in  New 
York.  In  1683  Colonel  Thomas  Dongan,  a  Catholic,  was 
sent  out  as  governor,  and  under  his  liberal  administration 
the  legislative  assembly — the  first  which  was  convoked — 
proclaimed  that  ‘  no  person  or  persons,  which  profess  faith 
in  God  by  Jesus  Christ,  shall  at  any  time  be  any  way 
molested,  punished,  disquieted,  or  called  in  question  for 
any  difference  of  opinion  or  matter  of  religious  concern¬ 
ment,  who  do  not  actually  disturb  the  civil  peace  of  the 
province  ;  but  that  all  and  every  such  person  or  persons 
may,  from  time  to  time,  and  at  all  times,  freely  have  and 
fully  enjoy  his  or  their  judgments  or  consciences,  in  matters 
of  religion,  throughout  all  the  province — they  behaving 
themselves  peaceably  and  quietly,  and  not  using  this  liberty 
to  licentiousness,  nor  to  the  civil  injury,  nor  outward  dis¬ 
turbance  of  others.’  By  another  article,  all  denominations 
then  in  the  province  were  secured  the  free  exercise  of  their 
discipline  and  forms,  and  the  same  privilege  extended  to 
such  as  might  come.  Bancroft  describes  this  Charter  of 
Liberty  as  eliminating  c  the  intolerance  and  superstition  of 
the  early  codes  of  Puritanism.’ 

The  New  York  Assembly  of  1691  declared  null  and  void 
the  acts  of  the  Assembly  of  1683,  and,  instead  of  the  Char- 


352 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


ter  of  Liberties,  passed  a  Bill  of  Bights,  which  expressly 
excluded  Catholics  from  all  participation  in  the  privileges 
which  it  conferred.  It  had  been  the  same  in  Maryland* 
where  Catholics  had  first  proclaimed  religious  liberty,  and 
where  the  Protestants,  who  soon  gained  the  ascendancy  ? 
proscribed  the  Papists  and  their  creed.  * 

In  1690  a  wicked  law  was  passed,  enacting  that  any 
priest  coming  into  the  colony,  or  remaining  in  it  after  a 
certain  day,  should  be  deemed  an  incendiary  and  disturber 
of  the  public  peace  and  safety,  and  an  enemy  to  the  true 
Christian  religion,  and  adjudged  to  suffer  perpetual  im¬ 
prisonment.  If  he  escaped,  and  were  retaken,  death  was 
the  penalty.  And  any  one  who  harboured  a  priest  wTas 
made  liable  to  a  fine  of  300Z.,  and  to  stand  three  days  in 
the  pillory.  In  1701  Catholics  were  excluded  from  office, 
and  deprived  of  the  right  of  voting ;  and  in  the  following 
year  they  were  specially  excluded  from  sharing  in  the 
liberty  of  conscience  granted  by  Queen  Anne  to  all  the 
inhabitants  of  New  York. 

It  may  be  easily  imagined  that,  whatever  their  condi¬ 
tion  at  home,  there  was  little  inducement  for  Irish  Catho¬ 
lics  to  emigrate  to  the  American  colonies  while  under 
British  rule,  and  so  long  as  the  spirit  of  their  laws  was 
more  than  a  faithful  reflection  of  the  odious  intolerance 
breathing  in  every  page  of  the  statute-book  of  England. 
They  did  come,  nevertheless,  and,  though  not  in  great 
numbers,  they  were  to  be  found  scattered  over  the  country 
in  various  directions,  and  carrying  on  business  in  New 
York  and  other  of  the  principal  cities. 

The  Bevolution  did  much  for  the  Catholics  of  America, 
if  not  to  change  the  public  sentiment  in  their  favour,  at 
least  to  afford  them  relief  from  positive  persecution.  No 
doubt,  men  of  just  and  generous  minds,  like  Washington, 
would,  without  the  pressure  of  special  circumstances,  have 


*  Shea’s  *  Catholic  Clmrch  in  the  United  States.’ 


THE  AMERICAN  CONSTITUTION. 


853 


been  willing  to  extend  the  same  liberty  to  Catholics  as  to 
all  other  religious  sects  ;  but  had  there  not  existed  the 
necessity  of  endeavouring  to  conciliate,  or  even  neutralise, 
the  Catholics  of  Canada,  and  of  not  offending  the  pride  of 
France,  a  Catholic  nation  which  had  rendered  such  material 
assistance  to  the  revolted  colonies  of  England,  it  is  possible 
they  might  not  so  soon  have  been  allowed  to  participate  in 
the  full  measure  of  freedom  secured  to  the  citizens  of  the  * 
infant  republic.  Even  the  fact  that  Catholics — soldiers 
and  merchants,  and  among  them  gallant  and  high-spirited 
Irishmen — distinguished  themselves  by  their  heroism  and 
generosity  in  the  cause  of  American  Independence,  would 
not,  of  itself,  have  been  sufficient  to  break  down  the  bar¬ 
riers  of  exclusiveness  which  intolerance  and  fanaticism  had 
raised  against  the  just  claims  of  that  faithful  but  persecuted 
body  of  Christians. 

There  is  little  mention  made  of  religious  matters  in  the 
Constitution,  but  what  is  there  proclaimed  has  often  since 
been  appealed  to,  and  will  many  times  again  be  appealed 
to,  as  the  solemn  declaration  of  a  great  and  fundamental 
principle  of  religious  toleration  and  equality.  ‘No  reli¬ 
gious  test  shall  ever  he  required  as  a  qualification  to  any 
‘ office  or  public  trust  under  the  United  States .’  ‘Con- 
‘  gress  shall  make  no  law  respecting  an  establishment  of 
‘ religion ,  or  prohibiting  the  free  exercise  thereof  ’  This 
is  the  entire  ;  but  it  was  like  a  grand  key-note,  to  regulate 
all  future  legislation,  which  ought  to  be  in  harmony  with 
the  principle  embodied  in  these  few  but  memorable  words. 
It  rather  pointed  out  to  the  thirteen  States  then  in  the 
Union  what  they  ought  to  do,  than  what  they  should  not 
do.  This  broad  proclamation  notwithstanding,  each  State 
was  at  full  liberty  to  legislate  according  to  its  own  views, 
in  reference  to  the  important  matter  of  religion.  This  is 
put  clearly  by  the  authors  of  ‘The  Catholic  Church  in  the 
Un  ited  States :  ’ — 


S54 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


The  original  thirteen  States,  one  after  another,  granted  to  the 
Catholics  liberty  of  conscience,  but  many  of  them  long  refused  the 
Catholics  civil  and  political  rights.  Thus  it  is  only  since  180G  that 
Catholics,  to  hold  office  in  the  State  of  New  York,  have  been  dis¬ 
pensed  with  a  solemn  abjuration  of  all  obedience  to  a  foreign  eccle¬ 
siastical  power.  Down  to  January  1,  1836,  to  be  an  elector  and 
eligible  in  the  State  of  North  Carolina,  it  was  necessary  to  swear  a 
belief  in  the  truth  of  the  Protestant  religion.  In  New  Jersey,  a 
clause  excluding  Catholics  from  all  offices  was  only  abolished  in  1844. 
And  even  now  (1856),  eighty  years  after  the  Declaration  of  the 
Treaty  of  Independence,  the  State  of  New  Hampshire  still  excludes 
Catholics  from  every  office,  stubbornly  resisting  all  the  petitions  pre¬ 
sented  for  a  removal  of  this  stigma  from  their  statute-book. 

As  to  the  States  founded  on  territory  ceded  by  France  or  Spain, 
such  as  Louisiana,  Florida,  Michigan,  Indiana,  or  severed  from  Mexico, 
like  Texas  and  California,  the  Catholics,  original  proprietors  of  the  soil, 
obtained,  by  the  act  of  cession,  the  free  enjoyment  of  their  worship  ; 
and  there  is  on  the  side  of  Protestantism  mere  justice,  but  no  generosity, 
in  keeping  the  faith  of  treaties. 

In  1790  a  remarkable  Address  was  presented  to  Wash¬ 
ington  from  the  Catholics  of  America,  signed  by  Bishop 
Carroll,  the  first  Catholic  Bishop,  on  the  part  of  the  clergy, 
and  by  Charles  Carroll  of  Carrollton,  David  Carroll,  Thomas 
Fitzsimmons,  and  Dominick  Lynch,*  on  the  part  of  the  laity. 

*  Dominick  Lynch  was  bora  in  Galway,  Ireland,  in  1754,  and  was  a  direct 
descendant  of  one  of  the  most  influential  families  of  the  town  :  one  of  his  ancestors 
being  the  inflexible  Mayor  who,  in  his  capacity  as  a  magistrate,  pronounced  sen¬ 
tence  of  death  upon  his  own  son.  Having  acquired  a  considerable  fortune  in 
Galway,  he  eventually  came  to  New  York,  where  his  arrival  was  regarded  as  an 
event  of  public  importance,  as  he  brought  with  him  a  larger  amount  in  specie 
than  had  been  brought  to  the  counti'y  in  many  years  by  a  private  individual. 
He  died  in  1825,  leaving  a  large  family,  several  of  whom  rose  to  eminent  posi¬ 
tions. 

Thomas  Fitzsimmons  was  born  in  Ireland  in  1741,  and  amassed  a  considerable 
fortune  in  Philadelphia,  to  which  place  he  came  about  the  close  of  the  last  inter¬ 
colonial  war.  He  was  a  member  of  the  State  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania  for 
many  years  ;  also  of  the  Continental  Congress  in  1782-3  ;  of  the  Constitutional 
Convention  in  1787  ;  of  the  U.  S.  House  of  Representatives  from  1789  to  1795. 
He  was  a  man  of  truly  noble  character,  morally,  intellectually,  and  physically. 
The  firm  of  George  Meade  &  Co.,  of  which  Thomas  Fitzsimmons  was  a  member, 
contributed  the  sum  of  5,000k  to  the  relief  of  the  Continental  Army  in  1780.  He 
died  in  1811,  in  his  70th  year.  His  wife,  Catharine  Meade  Fitzsimmons,  was  a 
daughter  of  Robert  Meade,  an  Irish  Catholic  merchant  of  Philadelphia,  great¬ 
grandfather  of  Major-General  George  Get 'don  Meade,  of  the  Regular  Army. 


WASHINGTON'S  REPLY  TO  TIIE  CATHOLICS. 


355 


Two  passages,  one  from  tlie  Address,  the  other  from  the 
reply,  may  be  usefully  quoted. 

‘This  prospect  of  national  prosperity,’  say  the  Catholics,  ‘is  pecu¬ 
liarly  pleasing  to  us  on  another  account,  because,  whilst  our  country 
preserves  her  freedom  and  independence,  we  shall  have  a  well-founded 
title  to  claim  from  her  justice  equal  rights  of  citizenship,  as  the  price 
of  our  blood  spilt  under  your  eyes,  and  of  our  common  exertions  for 
her  defence  under  your  auspicious  conduct ;  rights  rendered  more  dear 
to  us  by  the  remembrance  of  former  hardships.’ 

In  his  reply,  Washington  thus  referred  to  that  passage 
in  the  Catholic  Address  : — 

As  mankind  become  more  liberal,  they  will  be  more  apt  to  allow, 
that  all  those  who  conduct  themselves  as  worthy  members  of  the 
community  are  equally  entitled  to  the  protection  of  the  civil  govern¬ 
ment.  I  hope  ever  to  see  America  among  the  foremost  nations,  in 
examples  of  justice  and  liberality.  And  I  presume  that  your  fellow-citi¬ 
zens  will  not  forget  the  patriotic  part  which  you  took  in  the  accomplish¬ 
ment  of  their  revolution ,  and  the  establishment  of  their  government ;  or, 
the  important  assistance  they  received  from  a  nation  in  which  the  Homan 
Catholic  religion  is  professed. 

To  Baltimore  we  must  naturally  look  for  the  first 
establishment  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  America.  Mem¬ 
bers  of  various  religious  Orders,  especially  the  illustrious 
Society  of  Jesus,  those  heroic  soldiers  of  the  Cross,  had 
shed  their  blood,  or  wasted  themselves  in  a  life  of  labour, 
in  the  propagation  of  the  faith.  Spain,  France,  England, 
and  Ireland  too,  had  all  their  share  in  the  glory  of  those 
early  missions.  But,  previous  to  the  revolution,  the  number 
of  those  who  proclaimed  their  adherence  to  the  Church 
was  not  very  considerable.  Besides,  the  priests  were  few, 
and  many  of  them  worn  down  by  age  and  hardships.  The 

These  particulars  respecting  two  eminent  Irish  Catholics  are  abridged  from  notes 
supplied  by  Judge  Duly  and  Mr.  Michael  Hennessy  to  Mr.  John  Gilmary  Shea, 
for  his  republication  of  the  ‘Address  from  the  Roman  Catholics  in  1790.’ 

It  may  here  be  remarked,  that  the  Irish,  especially  the  Catholic  Irish,  were,  of  the 
three  nationalities— English,  Scotch,  and  Irish — the  most  devoted  to  the  interests 
of  the  revolution.  It  would  seem  as  if  they  instinctively  arrayed  themselves  in 
hostility  to  the  British  power  ;  a  fact  to  be  explained  alike  by  their  love  of  liberty, 
and  their  vivid  remembrance  of  recent  or  past  misgovernment. 


356 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


♦Catholics  of  the  United  States  were  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  Vicar  Apostolic  of  the  London  district,  and  during 
the  war  there  was  not  the  least  communication  between 
them  and  their  ecclesiastical  superior.  Of  course,  after 
the  termination  of  the  war,  which  ended  in  the  indepen¬ 
dence  of  the  American  colonies,  it  was  impossible  that  the 
Catholics  of  the  United  States  could  any  longer  remain 
in  subjection  to  an  English  bishop  ;  and  accordingly  the 
clergy  of  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania  addressed  the  Holy 
See,  praying  that  they  themselves  might  be  allowed  to 
choose  a  spiritual  superior,  subject  to  the  approbation  and 
confirmation  of  His  Holiness.  Hr.  Carroll,  then  the  most 
eminent  ecclesiastic  in  the  country,  was  selected  to  repre¬ 
sent  the  case  of  the  American  Catholics  before  the  Holy 
See  ;  and  in  praying  that  the  episcopal  power  should  be 
placed  in  the  hands  of  one  c  whose  virtue,  knowledge,  and 
integrity  of  faith,’  should  be  certified  by  the  clergy  of 
America,  he  was  unconsciously  describing  his  own  univer¬ 
sally  admitted  qualification  for  the  high  office  to  which, 
in  the  year  1789,  he  was  raised,  to  the  great  satisfaction 
of  the  clergy  and  laity  of  the  infant  Church,  and  the 
approval  of  the  foremost  American  citizen  of  that  day.* 
There  was  a  Cardinal  Antonelli  in  those  days,  as  in 
these  ;  and  the  Cardinal  of  that  day,  when  despatching  to 
Hr.  CarroH  the  official  documents  appointing  him  to  the 
new  see,  thus  expressed  his  congratulations  and  his  hopes  : 

*  It  is  a  splendid  and  glorious  office  to  offer  to  God,  as  it 
were,  the  first  fruits  of  that  portion  of  the  Lord’s  vineyard. 

•  *  The  Rev.  Dr.  White,  in  his  ‘  Sketch  of  the  Origin  and  Progress  of  the  Catholic 
Church  in  the  United  States  of  America,’  published  as  an  appendix  to  Darras’ 
‘General  History  of  the  Church,’  quotes  a  passage  from  a  letter  of  the  late  Hon. 
Mr.  Custis,  a  nephew  of  the  illustrious  Washington,  representing  the  esteem  in  which 
the  first  ol'  the  Catholic  bishops  of  the  United  States  was  held  by  its  greatest 
citizen  : — 

4  From  his  exalted  worth  as  a  minister  of  God,  his  stainless  character  as  a  man, 
‘and,  above  all,  his  distinguished  services  as  a  patriot  of  the  revolution,  Dr.  Carroll 
'  stood  high,  very  high,  in  the  esteem  and  affections  of  Pater  Patriae.’ 

Bishop  Carroll  was  of  Irish  descent  on  his  father’s  side. 


THE  FIRST  CIIURCII  IN  NEW  YORK. 


DO  i 

Enjoy,  therefore,  so  great  a  blessing,  not  only  for  the 
salvation  of  yourself,  but  for  that  of  others,  and  for  the 
increase  of  the  Catholic  faith,  which  we  trust  will  become 
more  and  more  widely  established  in  that  distant  region.’ 

In  1785,  when  Dr.  Carroll  submitted  the  case  of  his  co¬ 
religionists  to  the  Propaganda,  he  estimated  the  number 
of  Catholics  in  the  United  States  at  26,000,  and  thus 
distributed  them — 16,000  in  Maryland,  7,000  in  Pennsyl¬ 
vania,  and  2,000  in  New  York  and  the  other  States. 
This  was  too  low  an  estimate,  as  it  did  not  include  French 
and  other  Catholics  living  to  the  west  of  the  Ohio  and  on 
Hie  borders  of  the  Mississippi ;  but  the  small  number 
attributed  to  New  York,  now  perhaps  the  most  Catholic  of 
«my  of  the  States  of  the  Union,  is  worthy  of  notice.  It 
was  not  until  the  city  of  New  York  was  evacuated  by  the 
British,  in  1783,  that  the  Catholics  began  to  assemble  for 
the  open  celebration  of  public  worship.  They  probably 
might  have  been  content  to  remain  for  a  longer  time  with¬ 
out  a  church  of  their  own,  had  they  been  able  to  obtain  any 
suitable  place  in  which  they  could  decently  offer  up  the 
Holy  Sacrifice ;  but  finding  it  impossible  to  accommodate 
themselves  with  a  building  such  as  they  required,  they 
were  compelled  to  commence  what  must  have  been  in  those 
days  a  formidable  undertaking — the  erection  of  a  Catholic 
church  by  a  small  congregation ;  and  in  1786  the  Church 
of  St.  Peter,  the  first  Catholic  Church  in  the  State  of  New 
York,  was  erected — several  Irish  names  being  included 
among  its  principal  benefactors.  That  there  were  Irish 
congregations  in  the  States  at  that  day,  and  that  the  New 
York  congregation  bore  that  distinction,  we  have  evidence 
in  a  letter  quoted  by  Dr.  Bayley  in  his  ‘  Brief  Sketch  of 
the  Catholic  Church  on  the  Island  of  New  York.’  The 
letter  is  from  Dr.  Carroll,  dated  December  15,  1785,  and 
addressed  to  his  friend  the  Bev.  Charles  Plowden  : — 

The  congregation  at  New  York,  begun  by  the  venerable  Mr. 
Farmer,  of  Philadelphia,  he  has*  now  ceded  to  an  Irish  Capuchin 


358 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


resident  there.  The  prospect  at  that  place  is  pleasing  on  the  whole. 
The  Capuchin  is  a  zealous,  pious,  and,  I  think,  humble  mau.  He 
is  not  indeed  so  learned,  or  so  good  a  preacher,  as  I  could  wish,  which 
mortifies  his  congregation ;  as  at  New  York,  and  most  other  places  in 
America,  the  different  sectaries  have  scarce  any  other  test  to  judge  of 
a  clergyman  than  his  talent  for  preaching,  and  our  Irish  congregations , 
such  as  New  York,  follow  the  same  rule. 


Father  Whelan  had  served  in  a  French  ship  belonging 
to  the  fleet  of  Admiral  De  Grasse,  who  was  engaged  in 
assisting  the  cause  of  American  Independence ;  and  at  the 
close  of  the  war  he  selected  America  as  the  theatre  of  his 
missionary  zeal,  and  became  ‘  the  first  regularly  settled 
priest  in  the  city  of  New  York.’ 

By  the  aid  of  another  letter  from  the  same  pen,  quoted 
by  Dr.  White  in  his  ‘Sketch,’  we  lia\e  a  ghmpse  at  the 
state  of  things  at  Boston  in  the  year  1790.  The  descrip¬ 
tion  of  the  feeling  of  hatred  and  horror  created  by  ‘  scan¬ 
dalous  misrepresentation  ’  applies,  as  the  reader  will  have 
reason  to  judge,  to  a  period  even  more  than  half  a  century 
later,  and  to  many  parts  of  America.  The  name  of  Carroll 
was  inseparably  associated  with  the  successful  revolution. 
When  Charles  Carroll  signed  his  name  to  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  and  added  ‘  of  Carrollton,’  to  his  signa¬ 
ture,  Benjamin  Franklin  exclaimed — ‘  There  goes  a  cool 
million !  ’  The  new  Bishop  was  therefore  certain  of  being 
received  with  distinction  even  in  the  capital  of  Massa¬ 
chusetts  of  that  day. 

It  is  wonderful  (lie  writes)  to  tell  what  great  civilities  have  been 
done  to  me  in  this  town,  where,  a  few  years  ago,  a  ‘Papist  priest’  was 
thought  to  be  the  grossest  monster  in  the  creation.  Many  here,  even 
of  their  'principal  people,  have  acknowledged  to  me,  that  they  would  have 
crossed  to  the  opposite  side  of  the  street,  rather  than  meet  a  Roman 
Catholic  some  time  ago.  The  horror  which  was  associated  with  the 
idea  .of  a  Papist  is  incredible ;  and  the  scandalous  misrepresentations 
by  their  ministers  increased  the  horror  every  Sunday.  If  all  the 
Catholics  here  were  united,  their,  numbers  would  be  about  one  hundred 
and  twenty. 


UNIVERSALITY  OF  THE  CHURCH— EARLY  MISSIONS.  359 


To  the  revolutionary  fury  of  France,  which  directed  its 
fiercest  rage  against  the  Church,  that  strongest  bulwark  of 
civil  government,  was  America  indebted  for  many  eminent 
scholars  and  divines — ecclesiastic,  pious,  zealous,  learned, 
who  established  seminaries,  founded  colleges,  spread  the 
faith  with  characteristic  ardour,  and  filled  with  distinction 
several  of  the  first  sees  in  the  United  States.  Nowhere 
is  the  Catholicity — the  Universality  of  the  Church — more 
strikingly  exhibited  than  in  America.  Now  it  is  the 
Spaniard,  now  it  is  the  Frenchman,  now  the  Englishman, 
now  the  Irishman,  who  preaches  the  faith  or  sacrifices  his 
life  in  its  dangerous  mission ;  and,  as  years  roll  by,  it  is 
the  Irish  masses,  and  then,  though  not  to  so  great  an 
extent,  the  Germans,  who  build  up  her  churches,  and  give 
strength  to  her  congregations. 

The  number  of  Catholics  having  increased  so  rapidly, 
principally  through  emigration,  the  Holy  See  deemed  it 
advisable  to  elevate  Baltimore  into  an  archbishopric, 
and  to  appoint  four  suffragan  bishops — to  Philadelphia, 
New  York,  Boston,  and  Bardstown  ;  and  of  these  four 
bishops,  two — the  Bight  Bev.  Michael  Egan  and  the  Bight 
Bev.  Luke  Concannon — were  Irishmen.  The  new  bishops 
were  consecrated  at  Baltimore  by  Archbishop  Carroll  in 
1810,  at  which  period  the  strength  of  the  Church  was 
represented  by  seventy  priests,  eighty  churches,  and  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  laity. 

From  original  documents  in  his  possession,  Dr.  White 
gives,  in  his  Appendix  to  Darras’  £  General  History  of  the 
Church,’  some  characteristic  letters  from  missionary  priests 
to  their  Bishop,  Dr.  Carroll.  A  passage  or  two  from  these 
letters  will  afford  an  idea  of  missionary  life  in  those  days. 
Considering  the  sharp  provocation  to  its  use,  the  poor  priest’s 
strength  of  language  in  the  following,  written  from  West 
Pennsylvania,  is  but  natural.  The  writer  is  an  Irishman  : — * 

Your  reverence  (he  writes)  can  have  no  conception  of  my  dis¬ 
tress  here,  even  for  the  necessaries  of  life,  for  really  I  have  not  any- 


HGO 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


thing  like  a  sufficiency  of  food  such  as  I  get,  and,  indeed,  poor 
and  filthy  it  is.  Most  of  the  Irish,  who,  though  poor,  were  by  far 
the  most  generous,  have  now  quit  this  settlement ;  five  or  six  German 
families  alone  remain,  whose  chaplain  I  may  call  myself,  since  I  can¬ 
not  pretend  to  travel  for  want  of  a  horse,  and  those  people,  indeed, — 
abstraction  made  of  religion — are  the  last  of  all  mankind  for  senti¬ 
ments  of  humanity.  The  poor  man  I  live  with  is  not  paid  what  was 
promised  for  my  board,  and,  whether  he  intends  it  or  not,  he  treats 
me  accordingly.  Perhaps  he  can’t  help  it.  Bread  is  the  sole  support 
of  his  family.  Morning,  noon,  and  night,  flour  and  water,  or  bread 
and  water,  with  a  little  burnt  grease  thrown  over  it,  is  the  sup¬ 
port  of  his  starved  and  almost  perfectly  naked  family.  Since  my 
arrival,  the  only  meat  they  had  was  a  little  pig  about  twenty  or  thirty 
pounds,  and  a  calf  ten  days  old,  of  which  we  eat  this  whole  week, 
till  it  became  musty  and  green  for  want  of  salt.  .  .  ,  Thus  have  I  spent 
five  months  of  a  very  rigorous  Lent,  that  threw  me  into  a  diarrhoea, 
*hat,  in  such  wretchedness  and  cold,  made  me  pass  a  most  penitential 
winter. 

Another  priest  writes  from  Milltown,  Pa.,  in  January 
1799.  After  informing  his  Bishop  that  he  had  a  large 
tract  of  land  about  twenty  miles  from  there,  and  that  he 
had  placed  his  sister,  a  nun,  on  it,  allotting  her  and  her 
Order  five  hundred  acres,  he  requests  him  to  send  him, 
in  the  spring — 

Twenty  Munster  or  Connaught  men,  and  if  they  are  poor,  I’ll  pay 
them  as  much  a  year  or  a  day  as  any  other  gentleman  in  the  country, 
provided  they  are  Catholics,  because  there  are  plenty  of  other  descrip¬ 
tions  here  already  ;  but  I  don’t  approve  of  it.  Thus  you’ll  free  me  from 
a  reprobated  class  of  infamous  Scotch-Irish,  superior  in  all  kinds  of  wick¬ 
edness,  only  in  a  superlative  degree,  to  the  most  vile  convicts.  .  .  . 

This  before  I  would  not  mention  to  you,  until  I  could  be  settled,  in 
dread  you  might  suppose  interested  views  might  oblige  me  to  exag¬ 
gerate  in  my  reports.  .  .  ,  .  In  consequence  of  the  cold,  I  am 
dislodged  from  my  spring  house,  and  obliged  to  turn  into  the  pig-sty 
—that  is,  the  poor  honest  man’s  own  house,  where  cats,  young  dogs, 
and  young  fowls,  both  men  aud  their  wives,  sons  and  daughters,  all 
in  one  store-room  comfortably  kennel  together.  But  what  is  more 
humourous  is,  that  I  am  kept  in  pledge,  in  this  sweet-scented  situation, 
for  my  quarter’s,  diet  and  lodging. 

There  is  something  comical  in  the  bitter  wail  of  dis- 


TWO  GREAT  ORDERS. 


3G1 

tress  emanating  from  poor  Father  Whelan,  who  for  many 
years  a  missionary  in  Kentucky,  now,  January  1805,  ad¬ 
dresses  his  Bishop  from  Clay  Creek,  Pennsylvania  : — 

As  to  Thomas  Maguire  and  his  wife,  a  priest  might  as  well  go  and 
lodge  in  a  wolf-pen  as  with  them — he  being  a  wild  Irish  savage,  she 
being  either  “of  the  Sambo  or  Shawnee  breed,  though  some  say  she  is 
a  Hottentot.  But,  let  the  case  be  as  it  may,  she  is  one  whose  exte¬ 
rior  appearance  and  interior  disposition  differ  totally  from  any  woman 
I  ever  conversed  with.  At  the  second  word,  she  will  give  me  the  lie 
to  my  face.  Her  husband,  though  present,  would  say  nothing  to  all 

this . No  man  in  Bedlam  suffers  more  than  I  do,  in  the 

company  of  four  wolves.  I  hope  it  is  a  temporal  purgatory,  and  will 
atone  for  some  of  my  sins. 

Among  tlie  many  great  works  associated  with  the  episco¬ 
pacy  of  Dr.  Carroll,  two  may  be  noticed — the  foundation  of 
the  Jesuit  College  of  Georgetown,  and  the  establishment, 
under  Mrs.  Seton,  of  the  Sisters  of  Charity  at  Emmetts- 
burg. 

From  the  date  of  the  foundation  of  the  College  of 
Georgetown  to  the  present  hour,  this  parent  house  of 
Catholic  learning  has  steadily  pursued  a  noble  career  of 
usefulness  and  honour,  educating  thousands  of  the  best 
youth  of  the  country,  preparing  many  of  them  for  the 
most  eminent  position  in  every  walk  of  life,  and  every 
department  of  the  public  service.  And  at  no  period  of  its 
splendid  career  has  this  first  of  Catholic  American  institu¬ 
tions  held .  a  higher  place  in  public  esteem  than  it  does  at 
this  moment.  I  had  the  pleasure  of  walking  through  its 
halls,  and  visiting  its  rich  and  varied  library,  in  which 
there  are  works  of  the  rarest  kind,  inestimable  in  the  eyes 
of  a  collector.  The  president  is  an  Irishman,  as  distin¬ 
guished  for  his  learning  and  piety,  as  for  his  gifts  as  a 
preacher. 


To  two  holy  women — one  a  native  of  America,  the  other 

a  native  of  Ireland — is  America  indebted  for  a  gift  beyond 

1G 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


/ 


862 

measure  priceless,  and  indeed  of  which  no  human  estimate 
can  be  formed — the  foundation  and  introduction  of  two 
Religious  Orders,  which,  commencing  under  circumstances 
of  the  greatest  difficulty  and  discouragement,  have  since 
spread  over  the  face  of  the  continent,  having  their  branches 
in  every  State  of  the  Union,  and  being  in  all  places  where 
they  are  established  the  noblest  exemplars  of  the  Catholic 
religion,  because  the  truest  representatives  of  the  Christian 
virtues.  What  Mrs.  Seton  did  for  the  Order  of  Charity 
in  America,  Mrs.  M‘Auley  accomplished  for  the  Order  of 
Mercy  in  Ireland  ;  and  not  only  was  the  Order  of  Mercy 
introduced  from  Ireland  into  the  fruitful  soil  of  America, 
but  Ireland — that  exhaustless  fountain  of  the  faith,  whose 
well-spring  is  ever  full  of  living  waters — contributed  to 
both  orders  very  many  of  their  most  zealous  and  devoted 
members.* 

In  founding  the  Order  of  the  Daughters  of  Charity  in 
the  United  States,  Mrs.  Seton  not  only  rendered  a  lasting- 
service  to  religion  and  humanity,  but  afforded  the  honest 
doubter,  as  well  as  the  scoffer  and  the  hater  of  Catholicity, 
the  most  convincing  proof  of  what  it  teaches,  what  it 
practises,  and  what  it  really  is.  Born  in  New  York,  in 
the  year  1774,  of  Protestant  parents,  her  father,  Dr. 
Bayley,  being  an  eminent  physician  of  that  city,  Mrs. 
Seton  was  ever  remarkable  for  singular  sweetness  of  dis¬ 
position,  tenderness  and  compassion  for  every  form  of 
human  distress,  and  a  fervent  piety,  which  found  the  most 

*  Though  somewhat  anticipating,  it  may  be  here  mentioned  that,  of  the  Order 
of  Mercy  in  the  United  States,  now  numbering  about  1,300  sisters,  the  largo 
majority  of  these  are  Irish-born,  while  the  greater  number  of  the  remainder, 
though  born  in  America,  are  of  Irish  parentage.  The  minority  consists  of  Ameri¬ 
can,  French,  Spanish,  German,  and  other  nationalities.  To  the  convent  in  Carlow 
is  America  indebted  for  the  first  colony  of  these  holy  women,  who  were  introduced 
in  1343  by  Bishop  O’Connor  of  Pittsburgh  ;  and  to  the  zeal  and  energy  of  Mother 
M.  F.  Xavier  Warde,  the  first  superioress  of  the  Order  in  the  United  States,  and 
now  superioress  of  the  house  in  Manchester,  New  Hampshire,  are  mainly  due  the' 
wonderful  and  rapid  spread  of  this  noble  institution  in  the  New  World.  In  fact, 
this  gifted  lady  established  the  principal  houses  throughout  the  Union. 


MRS.  SETON. 


3(J3 

eloquent  expression  in  her  conversation  and  in  her  writings. 
To  those  who  desire  to  witness,  as  it  were,  the  struggles  of 
a  Christian  soul,  distracted  by  doubts  springing  from  the 
purest  conscientiousness,  and  yet  impelled  to  the  light  by 
an  invisible  influence,  we  cordially  commend  the  admirable 
‘  Life  of  Mrs.  Seton.’  *  by  the  Lev.  Dr.  White  ;  a  work 
that  will  well  repay  perusal,  whether  by  the  Catholic  or 
the  fair-minded  Protestant. 

It  may  be  remarked,  that  this  holy  woman,  this  model 
wife  and  daughter,  was  deeply  impressed  with  the  religious 
demeanour  of  the  poor  Irish  emigrants  of  that  day — the 
opening  of  the  present  century — who  were  detained  in 
quarantine  at  Staten  Island,  and  attended  by  her  father, 
as  Health  Physician  to  the  Port  of  New  York.  *  The  first 
thing,’  she  says,  ‘these  poor  people  did,  when  they  got  their 
tents,  was  to  assemble  on  the  grass,  and  all,  kneeling, 
adored  our  Maker  for  Ilis  mercy  ;  and  every  morning  sun 
finds  them  repeating  their  praises.’  The  scenes  then 
witnessed  at  Staten  Island  remind  one  of  those  which  were 
so  fatally  frequent  in  subsequent  years.  Even  at  that 
time — 1800,  and  the  years  following — large  numbers  of 
emigrants  arrived  at  the  port  of  New  York,  suffering  from 
the  dreadful  scourge  of  fever,  so  calamitous  to  the  Irish 
race.  A  striking  picture  of  the  sufferings  of  its  victims  is 


*  ‘Life  of  Mrs.  Eliza  A.  Seton,  Foundress  and  First  Superior  of  the  Sisters  or 
Daughters  of  Charity  in  the  United  States  of  America.’  By  Charles  T.  White, 
D.D.  Pub’ished  by  John  Murphy  &  Co.,  Baltimore.  This  work  reached  a  sixth 
edition  in  18G7. 

A  companion  to  the  ‘Life  of  Mrs.  Seton’  is  the  ‘Life  of  Catharine  M'Auley, 
Foundress  and  First  Superior  of  the  Institute  of  Keligious  Sisters  of  Mercy  ;  by 
a  Member  of  the  Order  of  Mercy.  Published  by  D.  &  J.  Sadlier  &  Co.,  New  York. 
This  is  a  charming  book,  written  with  a  grace,  and  at  times  a  vivacity  and  fresh¬ 
ness  of  style,  most  delightful.  One  is  led  to  believe  that  a  woman  alone — and 
that  woman  a  good  and  holy  one,  whose  heart  was  in  the.  great  work  of  the 
foundress  of  her  Order — could  have  done  justice  to  the  beautiful  character  of  that 
illustrious  convert,  whose  daughters,  numbering  about  4,000,  are  now  widely 
scattered  over  the  world,  diffusing  everywhere  the  blessings  of  a  religious,  indus¬ 
trial,  and  moral  training  to  the  young,  and  performing  those  works  of  mercy  by 
which  they  exemplify  the  holiness  of  their  mission.  It  will  be  read  with  pleasure 
K nd  with  profit. 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


3G4 

given  in  a  letter,  addressed  by  Mrs.  Seton  to  her  sister- 
in-law  : — 

Rebecca,  I  cannot  sleep  ;  the  dying  and  the  dead  possess  my  mind 
—babies  expiring  at  the  empty  breast  of  the  expiring  mother.  And 
this  is  not  fancy,  but  the  scene  that  surrounds  me.  Father  says  that 
such  was  never  known  before  ;  that  there  are  actually  twelve  children 
that  must  die  from  mere  want  of  sustenance,  unable  to  take  more 
than  the  breast,  and,  from  the  wretchedness  of  their  parents,  deprived 
of  it,  as  they  have  lain  ill  for  many  days  in  the  ship,  without  food, 
air,  or  changing.  Merciful  Father!  Oh,  how  readily  would  I  give 
them  each  a  turn  of  my  child’s  treasure,  if  in  my  choice !  But,  Rebecca 
they  have  a  provider  in  Heaven,  who  will  soothe  the  pangs  of  the 
suffering  innocent. 

She  would  willingly  have  become  a  mother  to  those 
helpless  little  ones,  but  her  father  would  not  permit  her 
to  obey  the  womanly  impulse,  as  her  first  duty  regarded 
her  own  child.  In  1801  her  father  fell  a  victim  to  his 
attendance  on  the  Irish  emigrants.  He  had  directed  the 
passengers  and  crew  of  an  Irish  emigrant  ship,  with  fever 
on  board,  to  go  on  shore  to  the  rooms  and  tents  provided 
for  them,  leaving  their  baggage  behind  ;  but  on  going  into 
the  hospital  the  following  morning,  he  found  that  his 
orders,  given  the  evening  before,  had  been  disobeyed,  and 
that  crew  and  passengers,  men,  women,  and  children,  well, 
sick,  and  dying,  with  all  their  baggage,  were  huddled  to¬ 
gether  in  the  same  room  in  which  they  had  passed  the  night. 
Into  this  apartment,  before  it  had  been  ventilated,  he 
imprudently  entered,  and  remained  but  a  moment,  being 
compelled  to  retire  by  deadly  sickness  of  the  stomach  and 
intense  pain  in  the  head,  which  seized  him  immediately 
on  entering  within  its  precincts.*  From  the  bed  to  which 
he  at  once  retired  he  never  rose  again.  This  was  Mrs. 
Seton’s  first  great  grief  ;  but  many  times,  in  her  after  life, 
was  her  tender  heart  wrung  by  the  loss  of  those  whom 
&he  loved  with  all  the  passionate  strength  of  her  nature. 


*  Thacker's  American  Medical  Biography. 


MRS.  SETON  FOUNDS  IIER  ORDER. 


365 


TIio  circumstance  of  a  visit  to  Italy,  wliither  she  went 
in  company  with  her  dying  husband,  who,  as  a  last 
resource,  sought  the  mild  climate  of  the  South  of  Europe 
as  his  only  chance  of  recovery,  not  only  confirmed  her  in 
her  previous  intention,  or  desire,  to  become  a  Catholic, 
but  acquired  for  her  the  enduring  friendship  of  a  high- 
minded  and  generous  family  of  Leghorn,  by  name  Fellici, 
to  whose  munificent  assistance  in  her  future  work  she  was 
under  the  deepest  obligations.  At  length,  and  after  an 
exhausting  mental  conflict,  rendered  more  distressing  by 
the  importunities  and  the  anger  of  her  relatives  and  friends, 
Mrs.  Seton  took  the  final  step,  and  in  the  church  of  St. 
Peter,  New  York,  in  March,  1805,  she  joined  that  Church 
to  which  it  has  been  her  happiness  to  render  the  greatest 
and  most  exalted  services.  By  this  last  act  of  what  her 
friends  regarded  as  spiritual  treason  of  the  most  flagrant 
kind,  Mrs.  Seton  cut  herself  off  for  ever  from  all  com¬ 
munion  with  them  ;  and  some  time  after  she  established 
in  Baltimore,  under  the  auspices  of  Bishop  Carroll,  and  with 
the  co-operation  of  those  who  knew  her  story  and  respected 
her  character,  a  school  for  young  ladies,  in  which  she  soon 
had  the  requisite  number,  including  her  own  daughters, 
to  whom  she  was  the  fondest  but  the  wisest  of  mothers. 
But  she  was  impelled  to  a  fuller  development  of  her  own 
desire,  which  was  to  dedicate  herself  to  the  service  of  the 
poor  ;  and  how  this  desire  was  fulfilled  is  thus  told  by  her 
biographer  : — 

About  this  time  another  circumstance  took  place  which  still  more 
plainly  indicated  the  will  of  God  in  reference  to  the  good  work.  Mr. 
Cooper,  who  was  then  a  student  in  St.  Mary’s  Seminary,  at  Balti¬ 
more,  intending,  if  such  were  the  divine  will,  to  prepare  himself  for 
the  sacred  ministry,  possessed  some  property  ;  and  he  was  desirous  of 
literally  following  the  maxim  of  the  Gospel  : — ‘  Go,  sell  what  thou 
hast,  and  give  it  to  the  poor,  and  come,  follow  me.’  One  morning, 
immediately  after  receiving  the  holy  communion,  Mrs.  Seton  felt 
a  strong  inclinalion  arise  within  her  to  dedicate  herself  to  the  care 
and  instruction  of  poor  female  children,  and  to  organise  some  plan 


866 


THE  IRISH  IN.  AMERICA. 


for  this  purpose  that  might  be  continued  after  her  death.  She  com¬ 
municated  this  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Dubourg.  ‘This  morning,’  she  said, 
in  my  dear  communion  I  thought,  Dearest  Saviour,  if  you  would 
give  me  the  care  of  poor  little  children,  no  matter  how  poor ; 
and  Mr.  Cooper  being  directly  before  me  at  his  thanksgiving, 
I  thought — he  has  money;  if  he  would  but  give  it  for  the 
bringing  up  of  poor  little  children,  to  know  and  love  you !  ’  Mr. 
Dubourg,  joining  his  hands,  observed  that  it  was  very  strange  ;  for 
Mrs.  Seton  had  not  mentioned  the  subject  to  any  one  else.  ‘Mr. 
Cooper,’  said  he,  ‘spoke  to  me  this  very  morning  of  his  thoughts 
being  all  for  poor  children’s  instruction,  and  if  he  had  somebody 
to  do  it  he  would  give  his  money  for  that  purpose;  and  he  won¬ 
dered  if  Mrs.  Seton  would  be  willing  to  undertake  it.’  The  good 
priest  was  struck  at  the  coincidence  of  their  views,  and  he  requested 
them  each  to  reflect  upon  the  subject  for  the  space  of  a  month,  and 
then  to  acquaint  him  with  the  result.  During  this  time  there  was 
no  interchange  of  opinion  between  Mrs.  Seton  and  Mr.  Cooper  in 
relation  to  their  wishes  ;  and  at  the  expiration  of  it  they  both  re¬ 
turned  separately  to  Mr.  Dubourg,  renewing  the  sentiments  they  had 
expressed  before,  one  offering  a  portion  of  his  temporal  means,*  and 
the  other  her  devoted  services  for  the  relief  of  the  poor  and  suffering 
members  of  Christ.  The  providence  of  God  in  behalf  of  the  Ameri¬ 
can  Church  was  so  clearly  indicated  in  the  circumstances  just  related 
that  little  room  was  left  for  deliberation.  Bishop  Carroll  having 
been  informed  of  the  design,  gave  his  warmest  approbation  to  it,  in 
conjunction  with  the  Rev.  Francis  Nagot,  the  saintly  superior  of  St. 
Mary’s  Seminary  ;  and  the  only  question  that  now  presented  itself 
for  consideration  was  in  reference  to  the  locality  of  the  intended 
establishment. 

The  two  ladies  who  first  joined  Mrs.  Seton,  were  Miss 
Cecilia  O’Conway  and  Miss  Maria  Murphy ;  and  among 
those  who  formed  the  little  community  of  Emmettsbnrg — 
the  locality  selected  for  the  parent  house  of  the  Order  in 
America,  we  find  such  names  as  Maria  Burke  and  Cathe¬ 
rine  Mullen ;  proving  that,  in  this  infant  institution,  the 
Irish  element  was  not  wanting.  In  a  miserable  little 
house  of  one  storey  and  a  garret,  sixteen  persons,  including 
the  female  children  of  Mrs.  Seton,  were  crowded  ;  and 
here  the  holy  women,  who  were  destined  to  prove  the 
most  eminent  benefactors  to  religion  and  humanity,  suf¬ 
fered  hardships  and  privations  which  they  yet  bore  with 

*  Eight  thousand  dollars. 


EARLY  DIFFICULTIES  AND  PRIVATIONS. 


367 


cheerfulness.  At  times,  indeed,  they  were  reduced  to  a 
condition  of  absolute  destitution.  To  supply  the  place  of 
coffee,  they  manufactured  a  beverage  from  carrots,  which 
they  sweetened  with  molasses :  and  their  rye  bread  was  of 
the  coarsest  description.  For  months  they  were  reduced 
to  such  absolute  want  that  they  did  not  know  where  the 
next  day’s  meal  was  to  come  from.  On  Christmas-day 
they  considered  themselves  fortunate  in  having  some 
smoked  herrings  for  dinner,  and  a  spoonful  of  molasses 
for  each.*  By  her  anti-Catholic  friends  Mrs.  Seton  was 
denounced  as  ‘  the  pest  of  society,’  ajid  ‘  a  hypocrite  and  a 
bigot,’  they  visiting  on  her  the  early  death  of  two  loved 
members  of  her  own  family  who,  braving  the  trials  of  her 
exalted  mission,  died  in  the  early  bloom  of  youthful 
womanhood.  As,  with  some  modifications  to  suit  the 
constitution  of  different  religious  communities,  the  objects 
contemplated  *by  the  Daughters  of  Charity  are  those  com¬ 
mon  to  several  orders  in  America,  it  may  be  well  to  state 
their  objects,  as  given  by  Mrs.  Seton’s  biographer  : — 

The  end  which  the  Sisters  of  Charity  of  St.  Joseph  proposed  to 
themselves  was,  to  honour  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  the  source  and 
model  of  all  charity,  by  rendering  to  Him  every  temporal  and  spiritual 
service  in  their  power,  in  the  persons  of  the  poor,  the  sick,  prisoners, 
and  others  ;  also  to  honour  the  Sacred  infancy  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  the 
young  persons  of  their  sex  whom  they  may  be  called  upon  to  form  to 
virtue,  while  they  sow  in  their  minds  the  seeds  of  useful  knowledge. 
Thus  the  poor,  of  all  descriptions  and  ages,  the  sick,  invalids,  found¬ 
lings,  orphans,  and  even  insane  persons,  were  embraced  within  the 
sphere  of  their  solicitude  and  care.  Another  object  of  their  zeal,  no 
less  important  at  that  time  in  America,  was  the  instruction  of  young 
persons  of  their  sex  in  virtue,  piety,  and  various  branches  of  useful 
learning. 

And  these,  and  such  as  these,  were  then,  and  have  been 
even  to  this  day,  described  as  Mrs.  Seton  was  described  by 
her  anti-Catholic  friends — ‘pests  of  society,’  ‘hypocrites 
and  bigots !  ’ 

Philadelphia  was  the  first  place  to  which  a  branch  of 

*  Life  of  Mrs.  Seton. 


368 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


the  order  was  extended ;  and  the  care  of  the  orphans 
whose  parents  had  perished  of  yellow  fever  offered  a  fitting 
opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  their  charity.  Their’ s, 
however,  was  a  hard  trial  for  a  considerable  time,  not¬ 
withstanding  the  sympathy  shown  to  them,  and  the  assist¬ 
ance  they  received.  The  Sisters  had  nothing  beyond  the 
coarsest  fare,  and  not  always  sufficient  of  that.  Tor  three 
months  they  had  no  bread  whatever,  subsisting  wholly  on 
potatoes,  which  formed  their  principal  article  of  diet  for 
their  first  year.  Their  ‘coffee’  was  made  of  corn,  and 
their  fuel  was  gathered  from  the  tanyards.  c  One  day,  the 
Sisters  being  to  much  occupied  at  home,  an  orphan  was 
despatched  to  the  market  with  twelve  and  a  half  cents, 
oil  the  money  in  the  house ,  to  buy  a  shin  of  beef.  A  few 
hours  after,  the  child  returned  to  the  asylum  with  a  large 
piece  of  meat,  telling  the  Sisters  that  an  old  market- 
woman,  finding  that  she  was  one  of  the  orphans,  had 
given  her  the  money  and  meat,  and  authorised  her  to  call 
upon  her  for  assistance  whenever  they  were  in  want. 
This  old  woman  became  a  generous  friend  of  the  in¬ 
stitution.  By  the  benevolence  of  herself  and  others  it 
gradually  acquired  ample  resources,  and  was  enabled  to 
maintain  under  its  charitable  roof  an  increasing  number 
of  orphans.’ 

The  holy  foundress  of  the  order  went  to  her  eternal 
reward  on  the  4th  January,  1821,  in  the  47th  year  of  her 
age,  her  death  being  as  edifying  as  her  life. 

From  the  very  first  formation  of  the  Order  of  Charity 
in  the  United  States,  there  were  to  be  found  in  the  infant 
institution  ladies  of  Irish  birth  and  Irish  parentage  ;  and 
as  it  gathered  strength,  and  its  branches  spread  from  State 
to  State,  the  Irish  element  was  ever  strong  in  its  commu¬ 
nities.  How  attractive  the  great  work  of  this  order  has 
proved  to  Irish  piety  may  be  learned  from  a  passage  in  a 
letter  from  a  Sister  of  St.  Joseph’s  Academy,  Emmettsburg, 
dated  June  3,  1867,  and  addressed  to  a  reverend  friend  of 


IRISH  SISTERS. 


3G9 


mine  :  ‘  Tlie  number  of  Irish  sisters  now  living,  and  in 
‘our  community,  amounts  to  four  hundred  and  ten.  This 
‘  speaks  well  of  the  piety  of  the  Emerald  Isle.’ 

The  prosperous  branch  of  the  order  in  the  State  of  New 
York,  though  founded  from  the  mother  house  at  Emmetts- 
burg,  and  based  on  the  same  principles  and  constitution, 
and  doing  the  same  work,  is  altogether  independent. 
It  numbers  several  hundred  sisters,  the  majority  of  whom 
are  Irish.  The  order,  wherever  it  is  established,  embraces 
within  its  ranks  a  considerable  number  of  Sisters  of  Irish 
descent  as  well  as  of  Irish  birth. 


370 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

Bishop  Connolly’s  Note-Book — Laity’s  Directory  for  1822 — Dr. 
Kirvvan  previous  to  his  Apostacy — The  Church  in  1822-  Pro¬ 
gress  in  1834 — IIow  the  Faith  was  Lost. 

AX  extract  or  two,  taken  from  a  note-book,  unhappily 
only  a  fragment,  kept  by  Hr.  Connolly,  Bishop  of  New 
York,  and  quoted  by  Bishop  Bayley  in  his  *  Brief  Sketch,’ 
will  tell  us  something  of  the  Irish  of  his  day,  as  also  of 
the  condition  of  his  diocese,  which  comprised  the  whole  of 
the  State  of  New  York  and  part  of  New  Jersey. 

March  lOtft,  1816. — Wrote  to  Dr.  Troy  an  account  of  my  voyage 
to  America;  illness  here  for  nearly  two  months.  Catholics  dispersed 
through  the  country  parts  of  the  States  of  Pennsylvania,  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  and  New  England,  where  they  seldom  see  a  •priest:  they  are 
not  able  to  maintain  one  in  any  particular  district — ambulatory  zea¬ 
lous  priests,  necessary  for  them  to  prevent  their  children  from  con¬ 
forming  to  the  persuasions  of  neighbouring  sectaries,  who  all  of  them 
have  their  respective  ministers.  Only  four  priests  in  this  diocese , 
though  the  Catholics  of  New  York  and  its  district  are  about  seventeen 
thousand. 

Feb.  25th,  1818 . At  present  there  are  here  about,  six¬ 

teen  thousand  Catholics,  mostly  Irish ;  at  least  ten  thousand  Irish 
Catholics  arrived  at  New  York  only  within  these  last  three  years.  They 
spread  through  all  the  other  States  of  this  Confederacy,  and  make 
their  religion  known  everywhere.  Bishops  ought  to  be  granted  to 
whatever  State  here  is  willing  to  build  a  Cathedral,  as  Norfolk  has 
done.  The  present  Dioceses  are  quite  too  extensive.  Our  cathedral 
owes  53,000  dollars,  borrowed  to  build  it,  for  which  it  pays  interest  at 
the  rate  of  7  per  cent,  yearly.  This  burthen  hinders  us  from  sup¬ 
porting  a  sufficient  number  of  priests,  or  from  thinking  to  erect  a 
seminary.  The  American  youth  have  an  almost  invincible  repugnance 
to  the  ecclesiastical  state.  « 


LAITY'S  DIRECTORY  FOR  1822. 


371 


The  names  of  the  priests  ordained  by  Dr.  Connolly — 
O’Gorman,  Bulger,  Kelly,  Brennan,  Shanahan,  and  Conroy 
— are  sufficient  evidence  of  the  country  from  which  the 
infant  Church  of  the  United  States  obtained  the  greater 
number  of  its  pastors.  Dr.  Bayley  mentions  one  of  the 
many  amusing  incidents  in  the  missionary  life  of  Father 
Bulger,  whose  ardent  zeal  and  buoyant  spirits  enabled 
him  to  bear  up  against  many  hardships,  and  not  a  few 
insults  ;  for  the  horror  of  ‘Priests  and  Popery,’  as  Bishop 
Carroll  said  of  Boston,  was  ‘  incredible.’  Trudging  along 
one  day  on  foot,  carrying  a  bundle,  containing  his  vest¬ 
ments  and  breviary,  under  his  arm,  Father  Bulger  was  over¬ 
taken  by  a  farmer  and  his  wife  in  a  waggon.  The  farmer 
invited  Mr.  Bulger  to  ride ;  but  it  having  come  out  in  the 
•  course  of  conversation  that  he  was  a  priest,  the  wife  de¬ 
clared  that  she  would  not  remain  with  him  in  the  waggon, 
and  he  was  obliged  to  get  out  and  resume  his  journey  on 
foot.  But  the  strange  part  of  the  story  is,  that  the  farmer 
afterwards  applied  to  Father  Bulger  for  instructions,  and 
became  a  Catholic. 

The  most  authentic  and  accurate  information  as  to  the 
condition  of  the  American  Church  towards  the  latter  part 
of  the  first  quarter  of  the  present  century,  is  afforded  by 
the ‘Laity’s  Directory’ for  1822.*  This  little  compilation 
deserves  notice,  not  only  because  of  the  contrast  it  offers 
to  the  great  volume  of  the  present  day,  but  that  it  enables 
us  to  behold  how  feeble  and  comparatively  insignificant  was 
the  Catholic  body  of  the  first  quarter  of  this  century  as  com¬ 
pared  with  its  present  magnitude  and  power.  At  the  time 
it  was  published,  not  many  pages  wTere  required  for  the  or¬ 
dinary  purposes  of  a  directory  and  calendar  ;  and  on  ana¬ 
lysing  the  138  pages  of  which  the  little  volume  is  composed, 
I  find  there  are  not  more  than  50  devoted  to  such  purpose  ; 
and  of  these  50  pages  10  are  occupied  with  obituaries  of 

*  T<>  the  kindness  of  Mr.  John  Gilmary  Shea  I  am  indebted  for  tlio  use  of  copies 
of  a  Laity’s  Directory  for  1822  and  1838—  the  former  published  at  New  York,  tka 
latter  at  Baltimore. 


372 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


deceased  pr elates  and  priests,  and  11  more  are  devoted  to  a 
single  institution,  and  an  account  of  the  Society  of  Jesus 
in  the  United  States.  In  fact,  less  than  a  dozen  pages  of 
Sadlier’s  voluminous  directory  of  the  present  year  would 
amply  suffice  for  an  epitome  of  the  ecclesiastical  intelli¬ 
gence  of  1822.  But,  according  to  the  advertisement,  it 
was  intended  *  to  accompany  the  Missal,  with  a  view  to 
facilitate  the  use  of  the  same.’  Revised  and  corrected  by 
an  eminent  Irish  Priest — the  Rev.  John  Power  of  New 
York— it  testifies  in  every  line  of  its  historical  and  de¬ 
scriptive  matter  to  his  piety  and  eloquence. 

Among  other  offerings  to  the  laity,  it  contains  4  A  New 
Year’s  Gift  for  the  Year  1822  ;  ’  and  though  a  somewhat 
strange  New  Year’s  gift,  it  must  have  been  welcome  and 
valuable  at  the  time.  It  is  a  4  Discourse  on  Religious  In¬ 
novations,’  delivered  by  the  Rev.  Walter  Blake  Kirwan,  at 
the  Neapolitan  Ambassador’s  Chapel,  in  London,  on  the 
20th  March,  178G.  Having,  a  short  time  after  the  delivery 
of  this  remarkable  discourse,  abandoned  the  church  which 
in  that  discourse  he  so  vigorously  and,  one  might  say, 
fiercely  defended,  his  apostacy  was  a  source  of  great  scan¬ 
dal  to  the  faithful,  and  of  corresponding  triumph  to  their 
opponents.  From  the  published  sermons  of  Mr.  Kirwan 
this  discourse  was  omitted,  4  doubtless,’  says  the  Editor  of 
the  Directory,  4  because  his  family  had  no  reason  to  be  so¬ 
licitous  to  promote  its  publicity  ;  his  fall  must  to  them  have 
been  a  subject  of-  grief  and  humiliation  :  and  they  felt 
poignantly  that  it  could  not  exalt  his  memory,  since  the 
talents  and  impressive  truths  it  displays  are  not  more  con¬ 
spicuous  than  that  deplorable  frailty  which  so  soon  after¬ 
wards  induced  himself  to  become  a  striking  example  of 
what  he  had  therein  so  wisely  and  eloquently  deprecated.’ 

The  publication  of  this  remarkable  discourse  was  no 
doubt  intended  to  answer  the  revilers  of  that  day,  and  per¬ 
haps  t  strengthen  faith  which  was  then  exposed  to  many 
perils.  Reading  it,  one  can  scarcely  avoid  arriving  at  on# 


DR.  KIRWAN  PREVIOUS  TO  IIIS  APOSTACY. 


373 


or  other  of  two  conclusions, — either  that  he  was  a  hypocrite 
of  the  most  daring  description,  or  that  he  was  seized  with 
some  sudden  religious  vertigo,  in  which  he  saw  everything 
through  a  distorted  medium.  Thus,  for  instance,  he  says, 
‘  Yet  in  what  terms  of  sufficient  indignation  shall  I  speak 
of  that  profaneness  which  has  branded  her  (the  Church’s) 
ceremonies  and  discipline  with  the  foul  and  opprobrious 
epithets  of  pageantry  and  abuse  ?  I  believe,  nay,  I  am  con¬ 
fident,  when  I  assert  that  such  ill-founded  and  scandal¬ 
ous  reflections  are  received,  even  by  those  who  dissent  from 
us — by  the  thinking  and  informed  part  of  the  Church  of 
England — with  the  utmost  contempt  for  the  person  that 
utters  them,  with  a  perfect  detestation  of  his  perfidy. 

Referring  to  a  point  of  general  discipline  in  the  Catholic 
Church  which  was  then,  and  has  been  often  since,  the  sub¬ 
ject  of  comment  and  attack,  that  of  ‘performing  the  public 
service  in  Latin,’  he  shows  how  it  establishes  uniformity, 
and  prevents  confusion  ;  ‘  because  natural  languages  are 
subject  to  decay  and  corruption,  and  in  the  space  of  a  cen¬ 
tury  may  have  undergone  a  total  change  as  to  the  meaning 
and  acceptation  of  words  and  phrases  ;  the  consequence 
must  be  that  error  and  obscurity  might  insensibly  steal 
into  the  Liturgy.  Because/  he  adds,  ‘in  the  same  king¬ 
dom,  for  instance  in  this  island,  which  is  but  a  speck  upon 
the  expanse  of  Europe,  public  service  would  be  read  in 
three  different  tongues,  English,  Welsh,  and  Erse.  Hence 
what  confusion  would  arise,  even  in  the  Liturgy  of  this  na¬ 
tion,  insomuch  that  were  one  of  you  to  be  present  at  the 
mass  in  Wales,  or  in  some  part  of  Scotland,  not  to  speak 
of  Ireland,  you  might  as  well  hear  it  in  the  language  of 
Hindostan.’  He  thus  sums  up  this  part  of  his  discourse  : 

*  In  whatever  point  of  view  I  consider  this  matter,  I  am 
persuaded  that  to  alter  the  present  practice  would  be  an 
unwise  and  dangerous  reform.  That  such  a  measure  might 
have  been  demanded  in  too  insolent  a  manner,  may  perhaps 
be  trua  ;  but  that  it  had  not  been  acceded  to,  because  we 


374 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


are  irritated  by  petulant  reflections,  or  not  disposed  to  pray 
in  tlie  language  of  a  Luther,  a  Calvin,  or  an  Elizabeth,  is 
not  the  case  ;  but  because  the  Church  judges  it  expedient 
to  preserve  uniformity  in  her  service,  and  secure  it  from 
change,  corruption,  and  confusion/ 

With  these  passages — defending  the  use  of  ceremonies — 
we  may  turn  from  the  New  Years’  Gift  offered  in  the 
Laity’s  Directory  of  1822  : 

If  there  is  any  faith  to  be  given  to  the  attestations  of  the  primitive 
writers  of  Christianity,  and  usages  of  the  Church,  from  the  earliest 
ages,  most  of  the  ceremonies  practised  in  our  public  service  and  ad¬ 
ministration  of  sacraments  are  Immediately  derived  from  the  Apostles. 
The  Church  has  judged  it  expedient  to  institute  additional  ones;  her 
power  is  from  Christ. 

The  use  of  ceremony  is  to  maintain  order,  decency,  and  uniformity 
in  the  exterior  acts  of  religion  ;  to  raise  and  elevate  the  mind  to  a 
proper  contemplation  of  our  mysteries,  and  to  inspire  respect  and  awe- 
for  the  supreme  majesty  of  God.  How  much  they  conduce  to  this 
great  object,  every  one’s  experience  bears  ample  testimony.  The 
strongest  impressions  are  produced  on  the  mind  through  the  medium 
of  the  senses.  The  animal  part  of  man  fetters  and  clogs  the  powers 
of  the  soul,  checks  its  activity,  and  blunts  the  edge  of  its  conception. 
The  sacred  pomp  of  religion  was  designed,  therefore,  as  an  auxiliary 
10  assist  the  efforts  of  the  mind,  and  give  a  spring  to  its  operations. 

In  1822  the  number  of  churches  throughout  the  whole 
of  the  United  States  did  not  much  exceed  one  hundred  ; 
and  in  some  of  the  States  not  only  was  there  no  church, 
but  a  priest  was  never  seen  by  their  scattered  population  ; 
so  that  if  they  kept  the  faith,  they  did  so  by  a  miracle  of 
grace. 

The  diocese  of  Baltimore  had  then  more  than  one-third 
of  all  the  churches — meaning  thereby  all  the  missions — in 
the  States.  Baltimore  boasted  at  that  time  of  thirty-nine 
churches,  and  several  institutions,  educational  and  charitable. 

Catholicity  had  a  hard  struggle  to  make  any  way  in  the 
New  England  States,  the  historic  stronghold  of  the  Puritans. 
It  was  nevertheless  making  progress,  but  slowly  ;  nor  was 
it  until  wave  after  wave  of  emigration  from  Ireland  was 


THE  CHURCH  IN  1822. 


375 


directed  to  its  shores,  that  these  States  began  to  feel  the 
influence  of  the  Catholic  element.  The  diocese  of  Boston 
comprehended  at  that  time — 1822 — the  entire  of  the  New 
England  States,  including  Maine ;  and  in  all  these  States 
there  were  but  six  churches,  two  of  which  were  in  the  city 
of  Boston.  There  was  one  at  Salem,  one  at  New  Bedford, 
and  two  in  the  State  of  Maine,  thus  leaving  districts  of 
enormous  extent  without  church  or  priest.  To  two  noble 
French  clergymen — Bishop  Cheverus  and  his  Vicar-General, 
Dr.  Matignon^-was  due  the  exalted  merit  of  having  ren¬ 
dered  Catholicity  respected  in  Boston.  They  were  learned, 
pious,  zealous,  indefatigable,  and  of  the  most  amiable  dis¬ 
position  and  conciliatory  manners.  They  failed  not,  we 
are  told  by  the  Editor  of  the  Laity’s  Directory,  in  a  short 
time  to  win  the  hearts  and  gain  the  affections  of  their  dis¬ 
senting  brethren.  ‘  Prejudices  soon  began  to  disappear, 
inquiries  after  truth  to  be  made,  numbers  successively  to 
join  their  little  society ;  and  at  this  present  time  the 
church  of  Boston  forms  a  very  prominent  feature  in  the 
Catholic  body  of  the  United  States.  O,  truly  fortunate 
revolution  in  France !  every  true  Catholic  in  this  country 
may  exclaim,  which  has  brought  so  many  edifying  and  en¬ 
lightened  instructors !  ’ 

In  1822  the  diocese  of  New  York,  which  comprehended 
the  whole  of  the  State  of  New  York,  together  with  the 
northern  part  of  Jersey,  possessed  but  seven  churches  ;  and 
including  the  Bishop,  Dr.  Connolly,  who  discharged  the 
ordinary  duties  of  the  humblest  missionary,  the  number 
of  priests  did  not  exceed  nine.  Two  of  the  churches  were 
in  New  York  ;  the  others  being  in  Albany,  Utica,  Auburn, 
New  Jersey,  and  Carthage.  The  clergyman  officiating  at 
Albany  occasionally  visited  Troy,  Lansingburgh,  Johns¬ 
town,  and  Schenectady.  Under  the  head  of  the  £  Clergy¬ 
men  officiating  in  the  diocese,’  we  find  the  following  items, 
alike  indicative  of  the  laborious  duties  of  the  clergy  and  the 
spiritual  destitution  of  the  scattered  flocks 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


‘570 


‘Rev.  Patrick  Kelly,  Auburn,  Rochester,  and  other  dis¬ 
tricts  in  the  Western  part  of  this  State. 

‘  Rev.  Philip  Larissy  attends  regularly  at  Staten  Is¬ 
land,  and  different  other  congregations  along  the  Hudson 
River’ 

Philadelphia,  which  included  Pennsylvania  and  Dela¬ 
ware,  was  a  comparatively  flourishing  diocese,  with  fifteen 
churches.  ‘  It  is  pleasing  to  reflect,’  says  the  Editor  of 
the  Laity’s  Directory,  £that  at  the  present  day  the  pro¬ 
fessors  of  Catholicity  make  up  nearly  one-fifth  of  the 
population  of  the  city.’  Even  then  the  Irish  were  strong 
in  Philadelphia. 

The  Bishopric  of  Bardstown  w~as  then  of  ‘  prodigious  ex¬ 
tent,’  comprehending  the  States  of  Kentucky,  Tennessee, 
Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois,  with  the  Michigan  and  North 
Western  Territories.  A  few  years  back  all  these  countries 
were  little  better  than  a  wilderness,  and  with  scarcely  a 
Catholic  to  be  seen  in  them  ;  and  though  we  are  told,  in 
the  Directory,  that  they  formed,  in  1822,  ‘  one  of  the  most 
populous  flourishing  portions  of  Catholic  America,’  we 
must  only  say  the  Catholics  were  left  very  much  to  them¬ 
selves  ;  for  in  the  entire  of  this  diocese — we  shall  not 
state  how  many  times  larger  than  the  United  Kingdom — 
there  were  but  nineteen  churches,  the  majority  of  them 
of  wood.  We  are  not,  therefore,  surprised  to  read  a 
passage  like  this — ‘There  are  yet  parts  of  this  country 
in  which  many  Catholics  have  settled  (chiefly  on  the  bor¬ 
ders  of  the  great  lakes)  who  have  not  yet  seen  the  face  of  a 
Catholic  clergyman  ’ 

The  diocese  of  Louisiana,  which  included  the  whole  of 
ancient  Louisiana  and  the  Floridas,  was,. then  one  of  the 
most  flourishing  of  the  domains  of  the  Church.  It  had 
a  considerable  staff  of  priests  when  compared  with  the 
other  dioceses,  though  there  were  many  portions  of  this 
extensive  region  in  which  the  voice  of  the  minister  of 
religion  was  never  heard. 


PROGRESS  IN  1834. 


377 


In  tlie  diocese  of  Richmond, ^vhich  embraced  the  whole 
of  Virginia,  there  were  but  seven  churches ;  and  in  the 
famous  Bishopric  of  Charleston,  to  which  Dr.  England 
lent  such  undying  lustre,  Catholicity  had  made  but  little 
progress  at  that  time. 

The  diocese  of  Charleston  included  North  Carolina,  South 
Carolina,  and  Georgia.  In  1822,  or  two  years  after  the 
appointment  of  Dr.  England  to  the  see,  there  was  but  one 
church  in  the  City  of  Charleston ;  there  was  no  church  in 
North  Carolina,  and  no  church  in  South  Carolina,  though 
churches  ‘  were  intended  to  be  ;  ’  while  in  Georgia  there 
were  three  churches,  one  in  Savannah,  one  in  Augusta, 
and  one  at  Locust  Grove.  In  this  vast  diocese  there  was 
ample  field  for  the  energies  of  the  most  zealous  missionary: 
and  we  shall  hereafter  see  how  vigorously  the  most  illus¬ 
trious  bishop  of  his  day  girded  his  loins  to  his  great  work. 
There  were  as  yet,  we  are  informed,  no  Catholic  schools 
in  any  part  of  the  diocese,  but  active  exertions  were  then 
being  made  by  Dr.  England  to  diffuse  a  correct  knowledge 
of  the  principles  of  the  Catholic  Church,  through  the 
establishment  of  societies  which  had  for  their  object  the 
dissemination  of  books  of  piety  and  instruction. 

We  now,  with  the  aid  of  ‘  The  Metropolitan  Catholic 
Calendar  and  Laity’s  Directory  for  1834,’  pass  over  a 
period  of  twelve  years.  This  little  volume,  not  greater  in 
size  than  that  published  at  New  York  in  1822,  was 
printed  in  Baltimore ;  and  we  are  not  surprised  to  read  in 
it  the  following  description  of  the  position  of  the  Church 
in  this  favoured  diocese. 

‘Baltimore  has,  not  improperly,  been  styled  the  Rome 
of  the  United  States;  and,  indeed,  whether  we  consider 
the  monuments  of  religion,  rare  and  magnificent  of  their 
kind,  or  the  splendour  of  the  ceremonies  of  the  church,  or 
the  number,  respectability,  and  piety  of  those  who  profess 
the  Catholic  faith,  there  is  no  one  who  could  question  the 
justice  of  her  claim,  or  attempt  tc  deprive  her  of  the  glory 
of  her  title.* 


378 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


AVe  find  four  new  dicfceses  in  the  year  1834,  namely, 
that  of  Cincinnati,  established  in  1823,  St.  Louis  in  1827, 
Mobile  in  1825,  and  Michigan  in  1823.  Of  the  old 
dioceses,  we  discover  more  apparent  progress  in  that 
of  Boston,  in  which  twenty-six  churches  are  well  dis¬ 
tributed  through  its  different  States.  Thus,  while  there 
are  nine  in  Massachusetts,  there  are  three  in  Bhode 
Island,  two  in  Connecticut,  two  in  New  Hampshire,  two 
in  Vermont,  and  six  in  Maine.  This  improved  condition 
of  things  denotes  that  the  Irish  Catholics  were  even  then 
making  their  way  in  the  home  of  the  New  England 
Puritan.  New  York,  with  a  wonderful  future  before  it,  has 
still  but  nineteen  churches  throughout  its  vast  diocese ; 
while  Charleston,  under  the  vigorous  administration  of 
Bishop  England,  has  already  twelve,  but  with  only  twelve 
priests  for  its  three  States. 

The  Religious  Orders  are  making  themselves  known 
in  several  of  the  dioceses,  where  their  value  is  already 
thoroughly  appreciated.  The  Sisters  of  Charity  have 
established  twenty-five  branches  in  seven  dioceses,  these 
taking  the  charge  and  management  of  academies,  free 
schools,  asylums,  infirmaries,  and  hospitals. 

In  1829,  wThen  the  first  Provincial  Council  of  Baltimore 
was  held,  which  was  attended  by  the  Archbishop  of  Bal¬ 
timore  and  five  bishops,  four  being  absent,  the  assembled 
Prelates  expressed  their  gratitude  to  God  for  the  increase 
of  the  Church,  whose  position  is  accurately  stated  in  the 
following  enumeration  :  — 11  dioceses,  10  bishops,  232 
priests,  230  churches,  9  ecclesiastical  seminaries,  8  colleges, 
20  female  academies,  and  a  Catholic  population  of  at  least 
half  a  million.  In  four  of  the  dioceses,  Baltimore,  Rich¬ 
mond,  New  Orleans,  and  St.  Louis,  the  number  of  priests 
was  132,  thus  leaving  but  100  for  New  York,  Boston,  Phila¬ 
delphia,  Bardstown,  Charleston,  Cincinnati,  and  Mobile. 
The  progress,  such  as  it  was,  -was  considerable,  taking  into 
account  the  difficulties  with  which  the  infant  Church  had 


HOW  THE  FAITH  WAS  LOST. 


379 


to  contend,  especially  the  want  of  churches  and  pastors 
for  fast-growing  congregations,  and  the  various  hostile 
influences  arrayed  everywhere  against  the  faith.  In  the 
Directory  of  1834,  we  frequently  read  such  announce¬ 
ments  as  these — ‘  mass  occasionally  ’ — c  mass  every  two 
months  ’ — c  mass  once  a  month  ’ — *  mass  twice  a  month.’ 
The  £  occasionally  ’  was  in  those  times,  and  for  years  after¬ 
wards,  a  word  of  large  significance,  and  might  mean  once 
a  year,  or  once  in  three  years,  as  was  in  many  instances 
the  case.  If  a  certain  proportion  of  the  Irish  emigrants 
did  lose  their  faith,  the  explanation  is  obvious.  It  may, 
however,  be  given  from  an  authority  that  cannot  be  ques¬ 
tioned  ;  namely,  the  Pastoral  Letter  of  the  Archbishop 
and  Bishops  of  the  Second  Council  of  Baltimore,  dated 
the  2nd  of  October,  1833  ;  from  which  the  following  pas¬ 
sage  is  taken  : — 

In  viewing  the  members  of  our  flocks  who  are  spread  abroad  over 
the  surface  of  this  country,  and  the  comparatively  small  number  of 
our  clergy,  we  have  often  been  forced  to  deplore  the  destitution  of 
spiritual  aid  under  which  multitudes  labour.  God  is  our  witness, 
that  so  far  as  we  had  the  means  we  have  endeavoured  to  supply  the 
wants  of  our  beloved  children.  We  have  not  been  sparing  of  our¬ 
selves,  nor  have  our  brethren  in  the  priesthood  been  spared.  Of  this, 
you,  brethren,  are  also  our  witnesses.  But  notwithstanding  these 
efforts,  the  Catholic  has  been  too  frequently  removed  far  from  the 
voice  of  his  pastor,  far  from  the  altar  of  his  redeeming  Victim,  far 
from  the  bread  of  angels,  far  from  the  other  sacraments  and  institu¬ 
tions  of  religion.  The  emigrant  who  comes  to  our  shores  for  the 
purpose  of  turning  his  industry  to  more  profitable  account  than  he 
could  do  in  regions  long  and  thickly  inhabited,  has  wandered  through 
our  forests,  our  fields,  our  towns,  and  some  of  our  cities,  in  amaze¬ 
ment  at  not  being  able  to  find  a  church  in  which  he  could  worship 
according  to  the  rites  of  his  ancestors  ;  he  has  left  our  republic  in 
the  bitterness  of  disappointment,  or  he  has  not  infrequently  become 
indifferent.  Others  have  with  a  firm  faith  preserved  the  sacred  de¬ 
posit,  and  transmitted  it  to  their  children,  looking  forward  with  hope 
to  that  day  when  they  would  be  cheered  by  the  ancient  sounds  of  a 
liturgy  derived  from  the  Apostolic  ages,  and  known  through  all  tho 
nations  of  the  earth. 


380 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


From  the  condition  of  things  in  a  single  diocese,  in 
which,  for  more  than  twenty  years,  the  bishop  had  to  do 
far  more  than  the  hardest  work  of  a  missionary  priest,  the 
reader  may  form  a  notion  of  the  state  of  Catholicity  in 
many  parts  of  the  United  States,  not  alone  from  the  year 
1820  to  the  year  1834,  when  the  Second  Council  of  Balti¬ 
more  was  held,  but  down  to  a  very  recent  period  indeed 
— wherever,  in  fact,  the  circumstances  were  at  all  similar. 
I  have  been  favoured  with  a  diary  kept  by  Dr.  England, 
Bishop  of  Charleston,  during  the  first  three  years  of  his 
episcopate ;  *  and  some  extracts  from  its  pages  will  afford 
the  reader  a  lively  idea,  as  well  of  the  multiplied  work 
which  a  Catholic  bishop  in  those  days  had  to  go  through, 
as  of  certain  peculiarities  in  the  religious  world  of  America, 
for  which  there  is  no  match  to  be  found  in  these  countries, 
where  the  hard  line  of  separation  is  rigidly  defined.  Before 
the  Bishop  speaks  for  himself,  it  may  be  well  to  show  what 
manner  of  man  he  was,  and  how  far  he  was  fitted  for  the 
position  to  which  Providence  had  called  him. 

*  This  cherished  memorial  of  her  illustrious  brother  was  entrusted  to  me  by  his 
venerable  sister,  one  of  the  oldest  members  of  the  North  Presentation  Community 
of  Cork.  For  half  a  century  known  by  the  honoured  title  of  'Mother  Catherine,’ 
Mrs.  England  has  been  eminent  for  much  of  that  vigour  of  intellect  and  energy 
of  character  for  which  +he  Bishop  of  Charleston  was  remarkable  ;  and  in  zeal  for 
the  glory  of  God — for  religion  and  Christian  education — it  were  difficult  to  decide 
to  which,  the  brother  or  the  sister,  the  priest  or  the  nun,  the  palm  should  be 
awarded. 


CHAPTER  XXL 


Dr.  England,  Bishop  of  Charleston — Bishop  England’s  Diary — 
Bishop  England’s  Missionary  Labours — The  Bishop’s  Trials — 
Bishop  England’s  growing  Fame. 


ENDOWED  with  singular  energy  of  character,  and  a 
I  mind  at  once  vigorous  and  comprehensive,  enriched 
with  information  both  varied  and  accurate,  John  England 
combined  the  advantages  of  a  thorough  training  in  all  the 
priestly  duties,  derived  from  an  active  missionary  career, 
first  in  his  native  city,  and  afterwards  in  the  parish  of 
Bandon.  To  the  discharge  of  his  functions  as  a  minister 
of  the  Gospel  he  brought  the  zeal  and  piety  of  an  ardent 
nature,  and  the  promptings  of  a  spirit  entirely  unselfish, 
and  indeed  wholly  self-sacrificing.  Nor  was  he  unaquaint- 
ed  with  those  political  questions  which  agitated  the  public 
mind  of  that  day.  In  Ireland,  whatever  the  disposition  of 
priest  or  prelate,  there  happen  occasions  when  he  is  tempt¬ 
ed — nay  even  compelled — to  quit  the  sacred  precincts  of 
the  sanctuary  for  the  arena  of  political  strife  ;  and  before 
John  England  was  appointed  to  the  parish  of  Bandon, 
even  the  ecclesiastics  who,  by  character  and  disposition, 
were  most  inclined  to  shrink  from  the  angry  contentions 
of  the  outer  world,  felt  themselves  compelled  by  a  sense  of 
conscientious  obligation  to  assert  their  rights  as  citizens. 
This  was  during  the  long  and  wearisome  struggle  for 
Emancipation,  which  was  mainly  carried,  as  the  world 
knows,  by  the  pluck  and  determination  of  the  Catholics  of 
Ireland,  assisted,  no  doubt,  by  the  generous  and  persistent 


?82 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


aid  of  the  Liberal  Protestants  of  the  United  Kingdom. 
The  grand  object  of  the  Irish  Catholics  of  that  day  was 
to  return,  as  their  representatives  to  Parliament,  the 
friends  of  Emancipation ;  and  such  was  the  power  and  in¬ 
fluence  of  those  who  made  a  desperate  resistance  to  the 
just  claims  of  their  fellow-countrymen,  that  it  required  the 
utmost  effort  and  the  most  perfect  union  on  the  part  of  the 
CathoKc  body  to  frustrate  the  machinations  of  their  wily 
and  relentless  opponents.  The  Rev.  John  England  was  a 
ready,  dashing  writer,  as  bold  in  attack  as  skilful  in  reply ; 
nor  as  a  speaker  was  he  inferior,  either  in  power  or  bril¬ 
liancy,  to  the  most  gifted  orators  of  a  period  when  men  bor¬ 
rowed  their  best  inspiration  from  the  earnest  convictions 
and  strong  passions  of  the  moment.  To  him,  in  no  small 
degree,  was  owing  the  courage,  the  cohesion,  and  the  tri¬ 
umph  of  the  popular  party  of  his  native  city ;  and  when  he 
left  that  city  for  the  parish  to  which,  at  an  unusually  early 
period  of  life  he  was  appointed,  and  afterwards  when  he 
quitted  the  shores  of  his  native  land  for  that  great  country 
with  which  his  fame  is  inseparably  associated,  he  was  fol¬ 
lowed  by  the  best  wishes  of  every  friend  of  freedom,  ex¬ 
pressed  as  well  by  substantial  tokens  as  in  eloquent  words. 
Thus  was  Bishop  England  especially  prepared  for  the  work 
he  had  to  do  in  his  new  field  of  labour  ;  his  acquaintance 
with  public  affairs,  and  his  faculty  of  dealing  with  questions 
other  than  those  within  the  immediate  province  of  a  minis¬ 
ter  of  religion,  frequently  obtaining  for  him  the  most  valu¬ 
able  influence  with  people  of  position  and  authority. 

We  now  turn  to  the  diary,  which  thus  opens  : — 

On  Monday,  the  10th  of  July,  1820, 1  received  in  Bandon  a  letter  from 
the  Reverend  Henry  Hughes,  dated  June  17,  1820,  at  Rome,  informing 
me  that  on  the  preceding  Monday  I  had  been  appointed  Bishop  of  Charles¬ 
ton,  in  South  Carolina,  and  requesting  of  me,  for  various  reasons  therein 
alleged,  to  accept  of  this  appointment. 

September  21st. — I  received  the  grace  of  Episcopal  Consecration  in 
the  Catholic  Church  of  St.  Finbarr’s,  in  the  city  of  Cork,  from  the 
Right  Rev.  Dr.  Murph}7,  Bishop  of  the  Diocese,  assisted  by  the  Right 


DR.  ENGLAND,  BISHOP  OF  CHARLESTON. 


383 


Rev.  Dr.  Maram,  Bishop  of  Ossory,  and  Kelly,  first  Bishop  of  Rich¬ 
mond  (Virginia),  whose  appointment  was  subsequent  to  mine,  but 
whose  consecration  took  place  at  Kilkenny  on  the  24th  of  August. 
There  were  present,  the  Most  Rev.  Dr.  Everard,  Archbishop  of  iviytc- 
lene,  coadjutor  of  the  Most  Rev.  Dr.  Bray,  Archbishop  of  Cashel, 
and  the  Right  Rev.  Drs.  Coppinger,  of  Cloyne  and  Ross,  Sughrue 
of  Ardfert  and  Aghadoe  (Kerry),  and  Tuohy  of  Limerick . 

October  11th. — I  having  many  applications  from  priests  and  can¬ 
didates  for  places  on  the  American  mission,  I  appointed  my  brother, 
the  Rev.  Thomas  R.  England,  and  the  Rev.  Thomas  0‘Keeffe,  my 
Vicars-General,  for  the  purpose  principally  of  selecting  such  of  those 
as  1  may  afterwards  want,  and  if  necessary  having  them  ordained. 
This  day  was  the  anniversary — twelve  years — of  my  ordination  to 
the  priesthood.  On  this  day  I  parted  from  my  family  to  go  whither  I 
thought  God  had  called  me,  but  whither  I  had  no  other  desire  to  go. 
Should  this  be  read  by  a  stranger,  let  him  pardon  that  weakness  of 
our  common  nature  which  then  affected  me,  and  does  now  after  the 
lapse  of  three  months. 

December  26th. — Found  soundings  in  35  fathoms  water,  and  on 
the  next  day  saw  the  Hunting  Islands  on  the  coast  of  South  Carolina, 
after  a  very  tedious  and  unpleasant  passage.  On  the  evening  of  the 
27th  came  to  anchor  off  Charleston  Bar,  and  on  the  28th  crossed  it, 
and  worked  up  the  channel,  and  came  to  anchor  in  the  evening. 

December  30th. — Came  on  shore  in  Charleston;  saw  the  Rev. 
Benedict  Fenwick,  S.O.I.,  who  was  Vicar-General  of  the  Archbishop 
of  Baltimore,  who  exhibited  to  me  his  papers.  I  gave  him  my  Bulls 
and  Certificates,  received  the  resignation  of  his  authority,  and  re¬ 
newed  his  faculties  of  Vicar-General  for  my  diocese,  as  Bishop  of 
Charleston,  which  he  accepted. 

December  31st. — Being  Sunday,  I  had  the  happiness  of  celebrating 
Mass,  took  possession  of  the  church,  had  my  Bulls  published,  and 
preached. 

Dr.  England  soon  made  himself  acquainted  with  tho 
condition  of  his  diocese,  which  in  all  respects  was  far  from 
encouraging.  Upon  enquiry  he  found  that  there  was  a 
congregation  in  the  City  of  Savannah  (Georgia),  but  that 
it  had  been  deserted,  and  he  took  into  consideration  the 
necessity  of  having  a  priest  for  that  mission.  He  deter¬ 
mined  to  visit  Savannah  and  Augusta,  and  Warrenton  in 
Georgia,  and  Columbia  in  South  Carolina,  without  delay, 
Appointing  the  Rev.  Mr.  Fenwick  his  Vicar-General,  with 


384 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


full  powers  until  liis  return  to  Charleston,  and  requesting 
him  to  purchase  ground  for  a  second  temporary  church  in 
that  city,  and  if  possible  procure  a  good  site  for  a  large 
cathedral,  he  went  on  board  the  sloop  ‘  Delight/  and  sailed 
for  Savannah  on  the  15th  of  January,  1821.  He  found 
there  had  been  no  priest  in  that  city  since  the  previous 
October  ;  and  to  repair  the  evil  caused  by  the  want  of  a 
clergyman  for  so  long  a  time,  he  commenced  a  vigorous 
course  of  instruction,  followed  by  the  administration  of  the 
sacraments.  The  following  entry  affords  an  idea  of  his 
energy,  and  of  the  attention  which  he  already  excited 
amongst  non-Catholics. 

‘  January  21. — Heard  confessions,  celebrated  the  Holy 
Mass,  and  administered  the  Holy  Communion  to  27  per¬ 
sons.  Gave  Confirmation  to  15  persons.  At  half-past  ten 
o’clock  I  spoke  on  the  erection  of  the  See,  on  my  own 
authority,  and  publicly  committed  the  flock  of  Savan¬ 
nah  to  the  care  of  the  Rev.  Robert  Browne  until  I  should 
think  proper  to  remove  him  ;  and  after  Mass  I  preached 
to  a  large  congregation,  amongst  whom  were  the  principal 
lawyers  of  Savannah,  and  many  other  strangers.  In  the 
evening  I  had  vespers,  and  gave  an  exhortation  and  bene¬ 
diction — Church  crowded  and  surrounded/ 

The  next  entry  records  the  same  round  of  duty,  with  this 
paragraph  added  :  4  "Was  asked  by  the  Mayor  and  others  to 
preach  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  which  I  de¬ 
clined  for  the  present.’ 

Appointing  ‘John  Dillon  to  read  prayers  for  Mass  on 
Sunday/  until  the  return  of  the  Bev.  Mr.  Browne,  whom 
he  took  with  him  on  his  visitation,  the  Bishop  proceeded 
to  Augusta,  which  place  he  reached  after  two  days  of  hard 
travelling.  After  a  brief  but  energetic  work  in  this  city, 
where  he  administered  Confirmation  ‘  to  John  McCormick, 
Esq.,  and  48  others/  he  set  out  for  Locust  Grove,  whoso 
Catholic  congregation  had  not  had  the  benefit  of  a  pastor 
for  several  years. 


BISHOP  england*s  diary. 


38o 


Arrived  there  at  nightfall,  and  was  most  kindly  received  by  old  and 
young  Mrs.  Thompson,  to  the  former  of  whom  great  merit  is  due 
before  God,  for  preserving  the  faith  in  this  country,  This  was  the 
first  Catholic  congregation  in  Georgia;  it  was  formed  in  1794  or  1795 
by  the  settlement  of  Mrs.  Thompson’s  family  and  a  few  others  from 
Maryland.  Bishop  Carroll,  of  Baltimore,  sent  the  Rev.  Mr.  Le 
Mercier  to  attend  them.  After  eighteen  months  he  went  to  Savannah, 
and  Rev.  Mr.  Sujet  then  remained  seventeen  months,  and  returned  to 
France.  There  was  no  clergyman  there  until  November  1810,  when 
the  Rev.  Robert  Browne  came  to  take  charge  of  Augusta  and  its 
vicinity,  and  remained  until  1815.  This  place  was  occasionally 
visited  by  Rev.  Mr.  Egan  and  Rev.  Mr.  Cooper. 

Like  all  Catholic  priests,  Bishop  England  was  particu¬ 
larly  solicitous  for  the  welfare  of  the  negroes.  The  policy 
of  the  Church  was  not  to  oppose  an  institution  which  was 
altogether  beyond  its  province  or  jurisdiction ;  but  its 
ministers  nevertheless  did  what  they  could  to  elevate  the 
moral  conditioi.  of  the  slave  through  religious  influences, 
and  also  sought  to  improve  their  temporal  condition  by 
inducing  their  owners  to  respect  the  sanctity  and  validity 
of  the  marriage  tie.’*  In  Locust  Grove,  Bishop  England 
found  several  Catholic  negroes,  amongst  whom  were  some 
both  ‘intelligent  and  well-instructed.’ 

There  he  preached  his  first  open-air  sermon.  ‘The 
church  being  too  small,  and  several  persons  having  col¬ 
lected  from  various  parts  of  the  neighbourhood,  I  preached 
from  an  elevation  outside  to  about  400  persons.’  At 
Warren  ton,  he  says,  ‘I  met  three  Cherokee  Indians  viz. 

i 

Colonel  Dick,  who  could  speak  a  little  English,  John 
Thompson,  and  Sampson,  to  whom  I  gave  their  breakfast. 
I  showed  the  Colonel  my  ring  and  cross,  of  which  he  took 
particular  notice,  and .  told  him  I  intended  visiting  his 
nation  ;  he  said  he  would  know  me.’ 

At  Columbia  he  finds  a  flock  consisting'  ‘  of  about  250 
persons,  principally  Irish  labourers  employed  in  making 

*  For  greater  convenience,  and  not  to  interfere  with  the  sketch  which  I  give 
of  the  progress  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  America,  I  prefer  treating  the  subject  of 
Us  relation  to  Slavery  in  a  n/;te  at  the  end  of  the  volume. 

7 


386 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


the  canal.’  There  was  no  church,  and  the  Bishop  f  there¬ 
fore  preached  in  the  Court-house  that  night  to  a  very 
nun  erous  and  respectable  congregation/  mostly  Pro¬ 
testants.  He  makes  strenuous  efforts  to  commence  a 
church :  and  on  his  committee  of  collection  we  see  such 
genuine  Irish  names  as  Peter  M-’Guire  and  John  Heffer- 
nan. 

Returning  to  Charleston,  Dr.  England  addressed  himself, 
with  renewed  energy,  to  his  great  labours.  He  now  com¬ 
menced  a  course  of  lectures  which  laid  the  foundation  of 
a  fame  that  ere  long  spread  through  every  State  in  the 
Union,  and  attracted  the  attention  of  the  most  thoughtful 
and  intellectual.  The  first  was  on  the  Existence  of  Gk>d  ; 
the  second  on  the  Nature  and  Necessity  of  Religion ;  the 
third  on  the  Establishment  of  the  Church  by  Our  Saviour ; 
the  fourth  on  the  Marks  of  the  True  Church,  ‘  exhibited 
in  the  Holy  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  in  that  alone.’ 
These  discourses,  which  were  continued  during  Lent,  were 
not  without  result ;  for,  under  date  of  April,  28,  there  are 
recorded  in  the  diary  the  names  of  several  converts,  in¬ 
cluding  that  of  ‘  a  lawyer  of  eminence.’ 

In  the  last  week  of  Lent  the  Bishop  published  a  cate¬ 
chism,  which,  he  says,  £I  had  much  labour  in  compiling 
from  various  others,  and  adding  several  parts  which  I  con¬ 
sidered  necessary  to  be  explicitly  dwelt  upon  under  the 
peculiar  circumstances  of  my  diocese.’ 

The  number  of  communicants  in  Charleston  in  the 
Easter  fortnight  (1821)  was  250. 

c  April  26.  Established  the  Book  Society,  and  had  the 
necessary  measures  taken  to  establish  a  general  committee, 
and  to  have  the  Society  extended  throughout  my  diocese.’ 

The  following  passage,  though  descriptive  of  the  condi¬ 
tion  of  the  Catholics  of  that  day  in  a  Southern  State,  was 
just  as  applicable  to  most  other  parts  of  the  Union,  save 
where  a  priest  was  regularly  stationed.  Indeed  it  as  accu¬ 
rately  represented  the  condition  of  Catholics  in  a  vast 


BISHOP  ENGLAND'S  MISSIONARY  LABOURS. 


3S7 


number  of  places  in  thirty  years  after  it  was  written.  It 
was  written  of  Wilmington  : — 

May  16th. — Celebrated  Mass  at  my  lodging,  and  gave  an  exhorta¬ 
tion  to  those  who  attended.  After  breakfast  met  the  Catholics,  about 
twenty  men  :  not  a  woman  or  child  of  the  Catholic  faith.  No  priest 
had  ever  been  fixed  here,  nor  in  the  neighbourhood.  A  Rev.  Mr. 
Burke  had  spent  a  fortnight  here  about  twenty-five  years  before,  and 
a  Jesuit  going  to  some  Spanish  settlement  spent  two  or  three  days 
in  the  town  about  the  year  1815,  and  baptised  the  children  of  Mr. 

- ;  but  their  mother  being  a  Methodist,  they  were  not  educated  in 

the  faith.  The  Catholics  who  lived  here,  and  they  who  occasionally 
came  hither,  were  in  the  habit  of  going  to  other  places  of  worship — 
Episcopal  Protestant ,  Methodist,  and  Presbyterian — and  had  nearly  lost 
all  idea  of  Catholicity.  I  spoke  on  the  necessity  of  their  assembling 
together  on  Sundays  for  prayer  and  instruction,  and  of  their  forming 
a  branch  of  the  Book  Society,  to  both  of  which  they  readily  agreed, 
and  then  recommended  their  entering  into  a  subscription  to  procure  a 
lot  for  a  church,  and  to  commence  building,  as  I  would  take  care 
they  should  be  occasionally  visited  by  a  priest.  I  also  exhorted  them 
to  prepare  for  the  sacraments. 

I  received  an  invitation  from  the  pastor  and  trustees  of  -the  Pres¬ 
byterian  Church  to  use  their  building  (the  best  in  the  town),  which 
upon  consideration  I  accepted.  I  was  waited  upon  by  the  Protestant 
minister,  who  offered  me  his  church  also,  which  of  course  I  declined, 
as  having  accepted  of  the  other.  In  the  evening  I  preached  to  a 
very  large  congregation,  on  the  nature  of  the  Catholic  religion. 

Here  was  a  fitting  occasion  for  the  zeal  of  the  young 
Bishop  ;  and  we  find  him  daily  exhorting  his  own  little 
flock,  and  also  preaching  each  evening  to  large  and  atten¬ 
tive  congregations — ‘  On  the  nature  of  Redemption,  the 
Mission  of  the  Apostles,  and  the  Authority  of  the  Church 
to  explain  the  Scriptures  and  teach  the  doctrines  of  Christ 
by  her  traditions.’  Nor  was  his  labour  without  fruit,  as 
he  established  a  branch  of  the  Book  Society,  raised  by 
subscription  1,160  dollars  for  a  church,  and  received  some 
converts  of  note. 

Among  the  entries  of  May  12tli,  there  is  this  record : 
‘Baptised  George  Washington,  aged  three  years,  son  of 


388 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


Patrick  Murpliy  and  Bebecca  Lear  ;  sponsor,  J.  P.  Cal- 
bar  do.’ 

‘May  20 . Was  requested  by  some  Protestant 

gentlemen  to  preach  twice  this  evening,  as  I  was  to  leave 
town  in  the  morning.  I  complied  with  their  request,  and 
preached  at  half-past  three  and  at  seven  o’clock,  to  very 
full  congregations.  There  was  created  in  Wilmington  a 
spirit  of  inquiry,  and  the  prejudices  which  were  very 
general  against  Catholics  were  removed.’ 

In  a  place  near  South  Washington,  we  are  told  that 
John  Doyle,  an  Irishman,  is  the  only  Catholic.  In  New- 
bern  we  find  a  state  of  things  exactly  the  reverse  of  that 
described  in  Wilmington.  In  Wilmington  there  were 
twenty  Catholic  men,  and  not  a  single  woman  or  child  of 
the  faith;  but  in  Newbern  there  are  ‘upwards  of  twenty 
Catholics,  principally  females.’  A  priest  had  visited  them 
seven  months  previously.  Here  the  Bishop  baptised  two 
converts,  ‘  men  of  colour.’ 

In  North  Washington  the  Catholics  were  ‘  few  and  gene¬ 
rally  negligent.’  No  priest  since  the  previous  year.  ‘The 
Methodists  have  a  meeting-house,  the  Baptists  a  temporary 
place,  but  there  is  no  other  house  of  worship.’  The  Bishop 
not  only  preached  in  the  Court-house  in  the  evenings,  but 
said  Mass  in  it  in  the  mornings  ;  and  the  congregations 
increasing,  the  converts,  including  people  of  colour,  coming 
in,  and  favourable  impressions  bqing  made  upon  others, 
who  took  time  to  consider  what  they  should  do,  we  are  not 
surprised  to  learn  that  ‘the  Baptist  and  Methodist  leaders 
•were  drawing  off  the  hearers  to  the  best  of  their  powrer.’ 

On  his  arrival  in  Plymouth  he  finds  but  one  Catholic  ; 
but  in  a  day  after  he  discovers  a  second.  Still,  he  is  well 
received,  and  actually  establishes  a  Book  Society.  ‘  Find* 
ing,’  he  says,  ‘an  anxiety  to  hear  me,  I  consented  to  re¬ 
main,  and  preach  twice  this  day,  to  about  40  persons  at 
eleven  o’clock,  and  to  a  much  larger  congregation  at  five 
o’clock,  at  the  Academy,  -which  was  the  only  public  building 


THE  BISHOP’S  TRIALS 


389 


in  the  town.’  For  tliree  days  he  preached,  both  morning 
and  evening  ;  on  the  third  evening  he  ‘preached  to  a  very 
crowded  congregation  in  the  Academy,  after  which  the 
Book  Society  met,  and  elected  their  officers.’  It  was  on 
that  evening  that  the  Bishop  discovered  the  second  Catholic 
in  the  town. 

^  In  other  places  he  finds  a  few  Catholics,  the  greater 
number  attending  the  Methodist  or  Baptist  places  oj^ 
worship,  there  being  no  Catholic  church,  and  the  visits  of 
a  priest  being  ‘  few,  and  far  between.’  Whatever  the  nature 
of  the  congregation,  whatever  its  admixture  of  nationalities, 
Irish  are  to  be  found  amongst  them  ;  thus,  next  to  a  high- 
sounding  Spanish  name,  we  alight  upon  a  Daniel  Flynn,  a 
Michael  Dempsey,  or  an  Ignatius  Crowley.’  Deputations 
wait  upon  him  to  request  he  will  preach  in  Protestant 
churches  or  in  Court-houses,  which  he  generally  does,  and 
with  advantage  to  the  cause  of  truth.  But  converts  are 
lukewarm,  and  Catholics  relapse  into  indifferentism  ;  and 
priests  cannot  be  had,  or  are  not  always  reliable,  being 
discouraged  by  the  hardships  of  a  seemingly  unpromising 
mission  ;  and  troubles  and  perplexities  plant  the  Bishop’s 
mitre  with  plentiful  thorns  ;  and  rheumatisms  rack  his 
bones,  and  fevers  break  down  his  strength  ;  and  to  add  to 
his  afflictions,  poverty  oppresses  him.  £  I  was  frequently,’ 
says  the  Bishop  of  three  great  States,  ‘without  a  dollar, 
from  the  wretched  state  of  the  income,  and  the  bad  dispo¬ 
sition  of  the  infidel  portion  who  professed  to  belong  to  the 
flock.’  Still,  in  spite  of  incessant  toil  in  the  mission,  and 
drudgery  in  his  seminary,  and  the  constant  pressure  of 
poverty,  he  continued  to  extend  his  Book  Society,  and 
establish  in  Charleston,  in  1822,  a  weekly  newspaper, 
called  The  United  States  Catholic  Miscellany,  which,  under 
his  management,  became,  one  of  the  most  potent  means 
of  vindicating  the  faith,  and  refuting  the  calumnies  so 
constantly  circulated  by  its  opponents  ;  in  fact,  it  soen 
grew  to  be  a  powei  in  the  country. 


390 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


"December  2Sth.  1822.  Columbia.  I  preached  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  at  the  request  of  the  legislature.’ 

*  April  24th,  1823.  Celebrated  Mass  and  exhorted,  and 
after  dinner  returned  to  Camden,  and  stopped  by  invita¬ 
tion  with  Mr.  Salmond,  a  Presbyterian/ 

"April  2 A  Jlr.  Salmond  teas  kind  enough  to  find  the 
Catholics  and  to  bring  them  to  me.  They  consisted  of  the 
Allowing  persons  French,  Spanish,  and  Irish  names  .  to 
whom  I  save  the  usual  commission.  I  trove  them  some 
books,  and  heard  the  confession  of  one  who  presented 
himself.  At  the  request  of  the  inhabitants  I  preached  in 
the  evening  in  the  new  Presbyterian  Church  to  a  very 
large  congregation.  I  afterwards  baptised  three  children.’ 

"With  one  other  extract  we  shall  conclude  a  notice  of 
the  Bishop's  diary,  from  which  sufficient  has  been  given  to 
afford  the  reader  a  true  picture  of  a  mission  throughout 
which  Catholics  were  thinly  scattered,  and  in  which  they 
had  to  depend,  in  a  very  great  measure,  upon  their  own 
steadfastness  to  retain  even  a  semblance  of  their  faith.  In 
purely  country  districts — perhaps  not  visited  for  years  by 
a  cierswman — matters  were  necessarilv  worse  ;  not  with- 
standing  which  there  were  manv.  manv  instances  of  Irish 
Catholics  keeping  the  faith  alive  under  the  most  discour¬ 
aging  circumstances. 

April  29th,  1 S23. — Fayetteville.  Heard  confessions,  celebrated 
Mass,  and  exhorted:  had  four  communicants — baptised  a  child.  I 
found  that  the  congregation  had  regularly  prayed  together  on  tie 
Sundays  and  holidays,  until  the  sickly  season,  when  they  fell  oft  I 
endeavoured  to  prevail  upon  them  to  resume  the  good  practice. 
Superseded  the  former  commission,  and  issued  a  new  one  to  John 
Kelly.  Dillon  Jordan.  Laurence  Fitzharriss,  Doctor  James  Moffet,  and 
Daniel  Kenny.  Was  invited  to  preach  at  the  State  House.  In  the 
evening  I  again  saw  the  Catholics,  and  exhorted  them  to  persevere — 
spoke  to  several  individually.  At  eight  o'clock  I  preached  in  the 
Slate  House  to  a  very  large  and  attentive  audience. 

As  years  went  on,  so  uid  the  fame  of  Bishop  England 
increase,  nntil  the  time  came  when,  from  one  end  of  the 


BISHOP  ENGLAND’S  GROWING  FAME. 


G91 


Union  to  the  other,  his  name  became  a  household  word 
with  Catholics  of  every  nationality,  who  recognised  in  him 
i  a  champion  fully  equipped,  and  equal  to  the  good  fight. 
The  feeling  of  his  own  countrymen  towards  him  cannot  be 
described,  so  intense  was  their  pride  in  his  great  qualities 
— his  power  of  pen  and  tongue,  his  resistless  force  as  a 
!  controversialist,  his  capacity  for  public  affairs — the  noble- 
|  ness  and  grandeur  of  his  nature,  which  all  men  respected, 
and  -which  made  for  him  the  fastest  friends  among  those 
wrho  were  not  of  his  Church.  There  were  other  great  and 
good  bishops,  who  by  their  saintly  character  and  holy  lives 
commanded  a  respectful  toleration  for  their  faith  ;  but 
Bishop  England  extorted  respect  for  his  religion  by  the 
matchless  power  with  which  he  unfolded  its  principles  to 
those  who  crowded  round  him  wherever  he  went,  and 
refuted  the  calumnies  and  misrepresentations  that  had 
been  the  stock-in-trade  of  the  enemies  of  Catholicity  for 
centuries.  Like  all  Irishmen,  of  that  day  as  of  the  pre¬ 
sent,  Bishop  England  at  once  became  an  American  citizen, 
|  thoroughly  identified  with  his  adopted  country,  proud  of 
j  her  greatness,  jealous  of  her  honour,  loving  her  beyond  all 
others,  save  that  old  land  whose  recollection  lay  wTarm  in 
liis  heart 

•  • 


i 

I 

i 

j 

i 

i 

i 


392 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


CHAPTEB  XVIII. 

Bishop  England’s  Diocese — ‘Music  hath  Charms’ — Preach¬ 
ing  by  the  Wayside — William  George  Read — ‘  Mister  Paul  ’ — 
Taking  a  Fresh  Start — Father  O’Neill’s  Two  Hundred  Child¬ 
ren. 

BISHOP  England’s  diocese,  as  we  have  seen,  was  suffi¬ 
ciently  extensive  to  satisfy  the  most  insatiate  thirst 
for  wide-spread  jurisdiction.  It  extended  from  Charleston 
to  Elizabeth  city,  North  Carolina,  a  distance  of  450  miles, 
and  from  Charleston  to  within  80  miles  of  Mobile — about 
800  miles  in  the  two  directions.  It  was  from  250  to  300 
miles  broad.  Still,  extensive  as  this  vast  territory  was,  it 
was  not  too  much  so  for  the  energy  of  this  extraordinary 
man,  and  the  ardour  of  his  priestly  zeal.  He  would  get 
through  his  missionary  labours  in  this  manner  :  possessing 
a  little  carriage,  indifferently  described  as  a  ‘ sulky/  ‘buggy,’ 
or  ‘waggon,’  the  Bishop  endeavoured,  perhaps  with  the 
aid  of  one  of  his  few  monied  friends,  to  purchase  a  pair  of 
serviceable  horses,  or  strong  ponies,  and,  accompanied  by  a 
negro  boy  as  driver,  he  would  travel  from  place  to  place, 
preaching,  instructing,  and  administering  the  sacraments ; 
and  on  his  return,  it  might  be  in  three  months,  six  months, 
or  even  nine  months,  he  would  readily  and  even  profitably 
dispose  of  his  cattle,  then  more  valuable  than  at  the  com¬ 
mencement  of  the  journey,  owing  to  the  training  to  which 
they  had  been  subjected. 

Many  a  strange  incident,  and  even  startling  adventure, 
occurred  to  the  Bishop  during  his  long  and  arduous  jour- 
neyings,  at  a  time  when  the  roads  were  little  better  or 


*  MUSIC  IIATII  CHARMS.’ 


393 


wcrse  than  tracks,  the  population  was  thinly  scattered,  and 
accommodation,  even  of  the  rudest  kind,  was  not  always 
to  be  had.  Frequently,  the  shelter  of  the  forest  was  all 
that  could  be  obtained  in  those  days  for  the  traveller. 
Once  in  a  city  or  town,  he  was  sure  of  being  well  received  ; 
for  while  prejudice  kept  some  aloof  from  the  ‘Popish 
Bishop/  curiosity,  and  the  irrepressible  desire  of  Americans 
to  listen  to  sermons,  discourses,  ‘lectures’  of  any  descrip¬ 
tion,  impelled  numbers  to  hear  a  man  who  was  famous  for 
his  eloquence.  Halls,  court-houses,  concert-rooms,  churches 
and  chapels,  would  be  freely  placed  at  his  disposal ;  and 
the  probability  is,  that  he  rarely  suffered  from  lack  of 
hospitality  under  those  circumstances.  But  there  were 
occasions  when  the  Bishop  found  it  difficult  enough  to 
make  out  a  dinner,  or  secure  the  shelter  of  a  roof  against 
the  night.  Even  in  the  Southern  States,  which  are  pro¬ 
verbial  for  the  unaffected  hospitality  of  their  people,  churls 
were  to  be  met  with,  at  least  in  Dr.  England’s  time. 

One  evening  the  Bishop,  who  was  on  this  occasion 
accompanied  by  one  of  his  few  priests — Father  O’Neill ;  it 
need  scarcely  be  added,  a  countryman  of  his  own-  -drew 
up  at  a  house  of  rather  moderate  dimensions,  whose  master 
was  a  marked  specimen  of  the  species  Surly.  Negotiations 
were  entered  into  for  a  dinner,  which  the  liberal  host  was 
willing  to  give  on  certain  conditions,  somewhat  exorbitant 
in  their  nature ;  but  there  was  to  be  no  further  accom¬ 
modation.  ‘You  cannot  stop  the  night,  nohow,’  said  the 
agreeable  owner  of  the  mansion ;  and  his  look  of  dogged 
dislike  was  quite  as  emphatic  as  his  words.  After  dinner, 
Dr.  England  sat  on  a  chair  in  the  piazza,  and  read  his 
‘  office  ;  ’  while  Father  O’Neill,  having  no  desire  to  enjoy 
the  company  of  his  unwilling  entertainer,  sauntered  to¬ 
wards  the  carriage,  a  little  distance  off,  where  the  boy 
was  feeding  the  horses  ;  and  taking  his  flute  from  his 
portmanteau,  he  sat  on  a  log,  and  commenced  his  favourite 
air,  ‘  The  last  Bose  of  Summer,’  into  which  he  seemed  to 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


391 

breathe  the  very  soul  of  tenderness.  From  one  exquisite 
melody  to  another  the  player  wandered,  while  the  negro 
boy  grinned  with  delight,  and  the  horses  enjoyed  their 
food  with  a  keener  relish.  That 

Music  hath  cha.'ms  to  soothe  the  savage  breast, 

was  here  exemplified,  As  the  sweet  notes  stole  on  the 
soft  night  air  of  the  Scuth,  and  reached  the  inhospitable 
mansion,  a  head  was  eagerly  thrust  forth,  and  the  project¬ 
ing  ears  thereof  appeared  eagerly  to  drink  in  the  flood 
of  melody.  Another  lovely  air,  one  of  those  which  bring 
in  voluntary  tears  to  the  eyes,  and  fill  the  heart  with 
balm,  was  played  with  lingering  sweetness,  when  a  voice, 
husky  with  emotion,  was  heard  uttering  these  words — 
‘  Strangers !  don’t  go  ! — do  stay  all  night ! — don’t  go  ;  we’ll 
fix  you  somehow.’  It  was  the  voice  of  the  charmed  host ! 
That  evening  the  two  guests  enjoyed  the  snuggest  seats  at 
the  hearth,  Father  O’Neill  playing  for  the  family  till  a  late 
hour.  Next  morning  the  master  of  the  house  would  not 
accept  of  the  least  compensation.  ‘  No,  no,  Bishop  !  no,  no, 
Mr.  O’Neill !  not  a  cent !  You’re  heartily  welcome  to  it. 
Come  as  often  as  you  please,  and  stay  as  long  as  you 
can.  We’ll  be  always  glad  to  see  you ;  but,’  speciaUy 
addressing  Father  O’Neill,  ‘be  sure  and  don’t  forget  the 
flute !  ’ 

There  were  occasions  when  not  even  Orpheus  himself 
could  have  made  out  a  dinner  or  a  bed,  had  he  been,  like 
Bishop  England,  on  the  mission  in  the  Southern  States. 
Orpheus  would  have  had  to  sleep  where  he  could,  and 
carry  his  dinner  with  him,  as  the  Bishop  very  often  did. 
The  Bishop  was  not  unfrequently  obliged  to  be  his  own 
groom  and  servant,  to  look  after  the  comfort  of  his  horse, 
and  see  to  the  cooking  of  his  simple  meal.  Tying  the 
horse  to  a  stake  or  a  tree,  he  would  brush  him  down  and 
supply  him  with  corn,  and  then  commence  preparations 
for  his  own  refreshment.  One  night  in  the  woods,  the 


PREACHING  BY  THE  WAYSIDE. 


395 


Bishop  and  Father  O’Neill  had  taken  their  frugal  supper, 
read  their  ‘  office,’  and  lain  down  by  the  fire  to  sleep  ;  but 
they  had  not  been  long  asleep  when  they  awoke  in  fright : 
a  few  moments  more,  and  the  forest  would  have  been  on 
fire,  and  perhaps  the  two  missionaries  ‘  roasted  like  chest¬ 
nuts,’  as  Father  O’Neill  afterwards  said.  The  parasite  ivy 
had  caught  the  flame,  and  it  was  rapidly  encircling  a 
gigantic  tree  in  an  embrace  of  fire.  By  the  most  extraor¬ 
dinary  exertions,  such  as  fear  could  alone  inspire,  the  ivy 
was  torn  down,  the  fire  extinguished,  the  forest  saved,  and 
the  great  missionary  longer  preserved  to  the  American 
Church. 

The  desire  to  hear  the  Bishop  was  not  confined  to  any 
particular  class  ;  it  wras  common  to  all.  A  somewhat  curi¬ 
ous  instance,  illustrative  of  his  popularity  as  a  preacher, 
occurred  during  one  of  his  journeys.  Arriving  at  a  kind 
of  wayside  inn,  or  what  may  be  described  as  a  carman’s 
stage,  the  Bishop  found  himself  in  the  midst  of  a  large 
convoy  of  cotton — waggons  drawn  by  horses  and  mules, 
with  a  number  of  drivers  and  attendants,  white  men  and 
negroes.  His  horses  had  been  fed,  and  he  was  about  to 
resume  his  journey,  when  a  grave  elderly  man,  who 
seemed  to  be  in  command,  approached  him  with  every 
mark  of  respect,  saying — ‘  Stranger,  are  you  Bishop  Eng¬ 
land?’  On  being  answered  in  the  affirmative,  he  con¬ 
tinued — ‘Mr.  Bishop,  we’ve  lieerd  tell  of  you  much.  The 
folks  say  you  are  the  most  all-fired  powerful  preacher  in 
this  country.  I  had  to  leave  Washington  before  you  got 
there,  and  I  can’t  get  to  Milledgeville  till  you’re  gone. 
Would  you,  Mr.  Bishop,  mind  giving  us  a  bit  of  a  sermon 
right  here  ?  It’ll  obleege  me  and  my  friends  much — do, 
Mr.  Bishop.’  ‘  Do,  Mr.  Bishop !  ’  was  taken  up,  in  full 
chorus,  by  the  rest.  The  appeal  so  urged  was  irresistible 
with  the  zealous  missionary,  who  yielded  a  ready  assent. 
On  the  stump  of  a  tree,  which  had  been  cut  down  to 
widen  the  road,  the  Bishop  took  his  stand,  the  branches 


39G 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


of  a  lmge  cedar  flinging  their  grateful  shadow  over  the 
preacher  and  the  reverent  group  that  clustered  round 
him  in  mute  expectation.  It  was  a  scene  for  a  painter — 
the  great  overhanging  forest,  the  rude  weather-stained  log 
house,  the  open  clearing  lit  up  by  a  glowing  sun,  the  huge 
waggons  with  their  horses  and  mules,  the  bronzed  weather¬ 
beaten  countenances  of  the  whites,  the  great  eyes  and 
gleaming  teeth  of  negroes  of  every  hue  and  tint.  But  the 
principal  figure  was  not  unworthy  of  its  prominence — a 
man  in  the  prime  of  life,  of  powerful  well-knit  frame,  his 
lower  limbs  clad  in  breeches  and  silk  stockings,  that  ex¬ 
hibited  a  leg  of  model  symmetry — a  face  strong,  massive, 
dark,  full  of  power  and  passion — an  eye  that  looked  as  if 
it  would  search  the  very  soul :  this  was  Bishop  England, 
as  he  stood  upon  that  tree  stump  by  the  wayside.  Soon 
were  his  willing  audience  bound  by  the  spell  of  his  elo¬ 
quence,  as  he  unfolded  before  them  the  grand  truths  of 
religion,  and  explained  to  them  their  duties  to  God  and 
their  fellow-men.  He  had  been  about  twenty  minutes 
addressing  them,  when  the  leader  stepped  forward,  and 
raising  his  hand,  said — ‘  That  will  do,  Mr.  Bishop,  that 
will  do ;  we’re  much  obleeged  to  you,  Mr.  Bishop ;  it’s 
all  just  as  the  folks  say — you  are  an  all-fired  powerful 
preacher.  We’d  like  to  hear  you  always,  but  we  musn’t 
stop  you  now.  Thank  you,  Mr.  Bishop,  thank  you,  Mr. 
Bishop.’  ‘  Thank  you,  Mr.  Bishop,’  cried  the  rest  in  chorus. 
And  amidst  a  cheer  that  would  have  tried  the  nerves 
of  horses  less  trained  than  his,  the  Bishop  started  on 
his  journey. 

A  brief  memoir,  or  biographical  sketch,  is  given  in  the 
first  volume  of  ‘The  Works  of  the  Bight  Bev.  John  Eng¬ 
land,  First  Bishop  of  Charleston,’  published  by  Murphy 
and  Co.,  of  Baltimore.  The  memoir,  too  brief  for  tlio 
illustrious  subject,  is  evidently  written  by  one  who  loved 
the  man,  revered  the  prelate,  and  thoroughly  appreciated 
his  power  of  intellect,  his  energy  of  character,  and  his 


WILLIAM  GEORGE  READ.  . 


397 


boundless  zeal.  To  an  apparently  trivial  incident  was  tliat 
tribute  eventually  due.  How  the  Bishop  became  known 
to  his  future  biographer  happened  in  this  way : 

A  lady  of  rank  and  refinement  came  to  Baltimore  with 
the  view  of  consulting  a  dentist  of  repute  ;  whom  she 
accordingly  visited  shortly  after  her  arrival  in  that  city. 
The  case,  though  important  to  the  lady,  was  not  of  that 
acute  nature  which  required  immediate  attention ;  and  the 
dentist  having  satisfied  himself  on  this  point,  asked  his 
visitor  to  excuse  him  that  day,  as  he  had  made  an  engage¬ 
ment  which  he  was  very  anxious  to  keep.  ‘In  fact, 
madam,  Bishop  England,  the  most  celebrated  preacher  in 
our  country,  is  now  in  this  city,  and  I  had  determined  to 
hear  him.’  ‘By  all  means,  sir,’  replied  the  lady,  ‘do  carry 
out  your  intention — I  can  call  as  conveniently  to-morrow.’ 
The  lady  withdrew :  but  not  well  knowing  how  to  dispose 
of  her  time,  which  hung  rather  heavily  on  her  hands,  she 
thought  she  could  not  do  better,  in  order  to  occupy  an 
hour  or  so,  than  go  and  hear  the  famous  preacher.  She 
went ;  and  so  strong  was  the  impression  produced  on  her 
mind  by  the  Bishop,  then  in  the  full  vigour  of  his  in¬ 
tellect,  that  she  became  half  a  Catholic  on  the  spot.  On 
her  return  she  confided  to  her  brother — a  man  of  consider¬ 
able  eminence  as  a  scholar,  and  a  gentleman  of  the  highest 
personal  character — the  change  wrought  in  her  opinions 
respecting  the  Catholic  Church.  The  brother  received  the 
startling  intelligence  with  feelings  of  alarm  and  indigna¬ 
tion.  But  how  check  the  evil  ? — how  draw  her  back  from 
the  fatal  goal  to  which,  with  all  the  ardour  and  impulsive¬ 
ness  of  a  woman,  she  was  so  rapidly  hurrying  ?  He  should 
himself  undertake  the  fraternal  duty  of  solving  her  doubts, 
and  confuting  her  new-born  errors  ;  and  the  more  surely 
to  convince  her  of  her  folly,  he  commenced  an  earnest 
course  of  reading  and  enquiry. — and  in  order  to  foil  the 
Bishop  with  his  own  weapons,  he  resolved  to  hear  him 
preach.  He  did  go ;  and  such  was  the  power  of  the 


508 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


preacher,  and  the  honest  candonr  of  the  listener,  that  the 
alarmed  and  indignant  brother  was  actually  received  into 
the  Church  before  the  sister,  who  was  only  on  the  road  to  it ! 
And  from  the  date  of  his  conversion  the  Catholic  Church 
in  America  had  not  a  bolder  or  abler  champion  than 
William  George  E^ad,  the  author  of  the  ‘Memoir  of  Bishop 
England.’ 

The  clenching. force  of  the  Bishop’s  manner  of  reasoning 
may  be  illustrated  by  the  following  reply  given  by  an  Irish¬ 
man,  who  was  one  of  the  warmest  admirers  of  his  distin¬ 
guished  countryman  : — 

‘Well,  Pat,’  said  a  lady  to  the  Irishman,  ‘what  do  you 
think  of  your  Bishop  ?  ’ 

‘  Think  of  him,  ma’am !  faith,  ma’am,  I  think  a  deal  of 
him,  and  why  not  ?  Isn’t  he  grand,  ma’am,  when  he 
crosses  his  Gvo  arms  on  his  breast,  and  looks  round  at  them 
all,  after  one  of  his  regular  smashers,  as  much  as  to  say — 
“  Answer  me  that,  and-  be  d - d  to  you  !  ”  ’ 

‘  Oh  Pat !  ’  remonstrated  the  lady,  who,  whatever  she 
thought  of  the  criticism,  was  somewhat  startled  at  the 
manner  in  which  it  was  expressed. 

To  break  a  lance  with  the  ‘  Popish  Bishop  ’  was  an 
object  of  no  small  ambition  to  the  controversialists  of  his 
day ;  and  many  a  fledgling  repented  his  rash  attempt  to 
provoke  him  to  an  encounter.  Animated  by  the  determina¬ 
tion  to  crush  the  great  champion  of  Eome,  a  young  preacher 
was  unlucky  enough  to  fasten  on  the  Bishop  with  the  per¬ 
tinacity  of  a  gad-fly.  The  Bishop  happened  to  be  travelling 
in  the  same  stage  with  the  preacher,  and  was  engaged  in 
an  earnest  conversation  with  some  of  his  follow-passengers, 
themselves  men  of  mark  and  position,  on  a  matter  which 
then  excited  considerable  public  attention.  To  the  preacher 
the  subject  of  conversation  had  no  attraction  at  that 
moment ;  he  was  only  thinking  of  the  splendid  opportunity 
which  the  occasion  afforded  of  striking  a  blow  that  would 
be  heard  of  throughout  America,  and  possibly  be  felt  in 


‘  MISTER  PAULS 


399 


the  halls  of  the  Yatican.  First,  he  ventured  a  question, 
then  a  sneer,  then  a  challenge,  but  without  effect  :  the 
Bishop  altogether  disregarded  his  would-be  antagonist,  and 
merely  waved  him  off*  with  a  careless  gesture  or  a  careless 
phrase.  The  spiritual  Quixote  would  not  be  put  down, 
and  would  not  be  waved  off* ;  he  was  resolved  on  piercing 
the  armour  of  his  scornful  foe,  and  humbling  his  pride 
in  the  presence  of  chosen  spectators  of  his  controversial 
prowess  ;  and  so  he  persevered,  interrupting  the  conversa¬ 
tion,  to  the  annoyance  of  the  other  passengers,  who  pre¬ 
ferred  the  discussion  of  a  topic  in  which  they  had  a 
personal  and  immediate  interest,  to  a  bootless  polemical 
disputation.  The  valiant  preacher  was  not  to  be  extin¬ 
guished  by  the  cunning  evasions  or  cowardly  subterfuges 
of  the  faint-hearted  Romanist ;  so  he  came  again  and  again 
to  the  charge,  flinging  St.  Paul  at  the  Bishop  with  the 
most  destructive  intention.  It  was  nothing  but  c  Paul  ’ 
here,  and  ‘  Paul  ’  there,  and  how  could  the  champion  of 
the  ‘Scarlet  Woman’  get  over  Paul? — and  what  answer 
could  ‘  Antichrist  ’  make  to  Paul  ?  The  nuisance  becoming 
intolerable,  the  Bishop  determined  to  put  an  end  to  it 
effectually.  Confronting  the  preacher,  and  directing  upon 
him  the  blaze  of  his  great  eyes,  which  gleamed  with  irre¬ 
pressible  fun,  he  placed  his  hands  with  solemn  gesture  on 
his  knees,  and  in  a  deep  voice  gave  utterance  to  this 
strange  rebuke: — ‘Young  man,  young  man!  if  you  have 
not  faith  and  piety  sufficient  to  induce  you  to  call  the 
Apostle  “  Saint  Paul,”  at  least  have  the  good  manners  to 
call  him  “  Mister  Paul,”  and  do  not  be  perpetually  calling 
h'm  “Paul,”  “Paul,”  as  if  you  considered  him  no  better 
than  a  nigger.’  The  words,  assisted  by  the  comical  gravity 
with  which  they  were  uttered,  and  enforced  by  the  roar  of 
laughter  with  which  they  were  received  by  the  delighted 
passengers,  who  had  so  long  suffered  from  the  infliction  of 

I  his  misdirected  zeal,  extinguished  the  poor  preacher,  who 
rapidly  hid  himself  in  the  town  at  which  the  stage  had 

IV 


I 


400 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


just.  arrived.  Nor  was  this  the  end  of  the  disastrous  en¬ 
counter — for  the  story  having  soon  got  abroad,  the  unlucky 
man  was  interrupted  by  some  irreverent  wag,  with  ‘Mister 
Paul — Mister  Paul,’  while  addressing  the  congregation 
whom  he  had  come  to  enlighten  and  inspire  ;  and  he  had 
to  leave  the  place  in  consequence  of  the  absurdity  of  the 
affair. 

One  of  Bishop  England’s  most  zealous  and  efficient 
clergymen  was  the  Rev.  Mr.  O’Neill,  through  the  influence 
of  whose  melodious  flute  he  obtained,  as  we  have  seen,  a 
free  dinner  and  a  good  bed  from  one  of  the  rustiest  cur¬ 
mudgeons  in  South  Carolina.  Father  O’Neill  was  an  Irish 
priest  of  the  finest  type,  genial,  cheery,  and  light-hearted, 
but  earnest,  and  even  stern,  when  the  occasion  required. 
Arrived  at  a  patriarchal  age,  and  honoured  and  respected 
by  all  classes  of  the  community,  he  is  still  on  the  mission 
in  the  city  of  Savannah. 

Father  O’Neill  could  preach  quite  as  well  as  he  could 
play,  nor  was  his  tongue  a  less  persuasive  instrument  than 
his  flute.  Indeed,  it  may  be  doubted  if,  in  his  most 
inspired  moment,  he  could  perform  as  successfully  with 
the  former  as  with  the  latter,  and  for  the  same  length  of 
time  hold  his  audience  spell-bound#  with  the  one  as  with 
the  other.  For  Father  O’Neill  had  marvellous  powers  of 
endurance  as  a  preacher,  or  lecturer  ;  and  his  audience 
were  so  ‘kept  alive  ’  by  his  manner,  in  which  argument; 
illustration,  wit,  and  delicate  humour  were  agreeably 
blended,,  that  they  did  not  perceive  the  time  passing, 
and  were  rather  sorry  than  otherwise  when  ‘  the  Father  ’ 
gave  in. 

On  one  occasion  he  was  preaching  somewhere  in  Georgia, 
and  the  country  round  had  assembled  to  hear  him.  At 
the  end  of  two  hours  and  a  half,  during  which  there  was 
not  the  slightest  symptom  of  weariness  exhibited  by  a 
densely  crowded  audience,  he  said  that  the  expiring  con¬ 
dition  of  the  candles  warned  him  to  bring  his  remarks  to 


TAKING  A  FRESH  START 


401 


a  close.  Quick  as  thought,  an  Irishwoman,  who  occupied  a 
conspicuous  position  among  the  audience,  and  who  would 
willingly  have  sat  there  till  morning,  cried  out,  ‘Never 
mind  that,  your  reverence  ;  sure  we  brought  half-a-box  of 
candles  along  with  us,  as  we  thought  you’d  need  them.’ 
The  wise  considerateness  of  the  Irishwoman  was  hailed 
with  general  satisfaction,  and  with  brighter  auspices  the 
preacher  resumed  his  discourse. 

There  was  one  occasion,  however,  when  Father  O’Neill 
surpassed  all  his  former  achievements.  It  was  on  the  re¬ 
ception  of  a  Mrs.  Taylor  into  the  Catholic  Church. 

Mrs.  Taylor  was  a  lady  of  good  social  position,  whose 
conversion  to  Catholicism  excited  much  interest  among 
her  friends  and  neighbours.  Her  reception  into  the 
church  was  to  be  made  an  occasion  of  some  solemnity, 
and  invitations  were  sent  to  the  gentry  for  miles  round, 
requesting  their  attendance  at  the  ceremony,  which  was  to 
be  followed  by  a  banquet  of  more  than  usual  elegance  and 
profusion.  The  auspicious  morning  arrived.  In  the  grand 
saloon,  where  an  altar  had  been  erected,  were  assembled 
sixty  or  seventy  people,  and  crowding  in  front  of  the  win¬ 
dows  of  the  apartment  were  groups  of  negroes,  to  whom  the 
day  was  to  be  one  of  welcome  rest  and  rejoicing.  At  the 
termination  of  the  Mass,  Mrs.  Taylor  was  to  be  received. 
Punctual  to  the  appointed  hour — eight  o’clock  in  the  morn¬ 
ing — Father  O’Neill  commenced.  Wearing  his  soutane,  or 
cassock,  he  made  his  appearance  at  the  temporary  altar, 
on  which  the  various  robes  and  vestments  worn  by  a 
priest  in  the  celebration  of  Mass  were  placed.  Referring 
to  the  purpose  of  the  day’s  ceremony,  he  stated  the  leading 
reasons  wTiy  a  Protestant  should  become  a  Catholic.  He 
then  specially  explained  the  doctrine  of  the  Mass,  dealing 
with  it  as  a  sacrament  and  a  sacrifice ;  and  having  justified 
the  use  of  the  Latin  language  in  its  celebration,  he  said  he 
would  represent  the  symbolical  meaning  of  each  vestment 
as  he  put  it  on  ;  which  he  did  in  a  popular  and  persuasive 


402 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


manner  that  excited  the  interest  and  rivetted  the  attention 
of  his  audience.  Having  concluded  his  series  of  discourses, 
and  bciim  then  fullv  robed,  he  turned  to  the  'altar  to  com- 
mence  ;  but  seeing  that  one  of  the  candles  had  been  entirely 
consumed,  and  that  the  other  was  flickering  in  its  socket, 
he  glanced  at  his  watch,  and  found  that  the  hour  was  within 
a  quarter  to  two  o’clock !  Zealous  patriot !  patient  audience  ! 
Father  O’Neill  took  the  matter  coolly,  saying,  ‘My  friends, 
I  have  committed  an  oversight.  According  to  the  ordinary 
laws  of  the  Church,  Mass  should  commence  before  twelve 
o’clock.  In  a  missionary  country,  like  ours,  we  have  the 
privilege  of  commencing  an  hour  later — any  time  up  to 
one.  But  now  it  is  approaching  two,  and  I  cannot  pro¬ 
ceed  with  the  service.  I  am  sorry  for  your  disappoint¬ 
ment  this  morning ;  but  if  you  will  come  to-morrow' 
morning  at  eight  o’clock,  we  will  take  a  fresh  start.’  The 
audience  bore  the  disappointment  with  perfect  equanimity, 
and  were  determined  to  see  the  ceremony  to  the  end  ;  so 
they  enjoyed  the  hospitality  of  Mrs.  Taylor  for  the  re¬ 
mainder  of  the  day,  and  next  morning  again  assembled  in 
the  saloon  at  the  appointed  hour,  when  Father  O’Neill 
took  his  fresh  start  ;  this  time  with  such  energy,  that  the 
whole  was  well  finished  by  twelve  o’clock. 

But  Father  O’Neill  could  be  quite  as  effective  in  a  short 
speech  as  in  a  lengthened  discourse  ;  and  on  an  occasion 
of  much  interest,  and  in  a  time  of  no  small  anti-foreign 
and  anti-Catholic  excitement,  he  delivered  a  few  pithy 
sentences  which  produced  a  most  salutary  effect.  It  was 
at  a  public  dinner  in  Savannah,  to  celebrate  the  inaugura¬ 
tion  of  a  monument  erected  to  Pulaski,  one  of  the  heroes 
of  the  Revolution  of  1776,  who,  wounded  at  the  Battle  of 
Savannah,  had  died  a  few  days  after.  There  had  been  a 
procession  and  an  oration  in  the  day,  and  a  grand  dinner 
was  to  be  the  agreeable  wind-up  of  an  event  so  dear  to  the 
patriotic  heart.  There  could  be  no  public  dinner  in 
Savannah  that  did  not  'nclude  the  popular  Irish  priest  as 


FATHER  O’NEILL’S  TWO  HUNDRED  CHILDREN. 


403 


one  of  the  guests,  and,  as  a  matter  of  invariable  routine, 
Father  O’Neill  should  have  a  toast  or  a  sentiment  to 
propose.  It  was  in  the  time  when  the  wretched  ‘  Know- 
Nothing  ’  excitement  was  rife  in  most  parts  of  America, 
and  •  the  furious  cry  of  ‘  Down  with  the  foreigner !  down 
with  the  Papist!’  found  an  echo  in  the  South. 

‘I  have  listened,’  said  Father  O’Neill,  ‘to  the  oration  of 
the  day.  It  was  excellent,  so  far  as  it  went.  But  it 
omitted  one  most  essential  point — about  Pulaski  himself. 
I  will  supply  the  deficiency.  Pulaski  was  a  foreigner,  who 
had  the  extraordinary  habit  of  saying  his  beads  every 
day.  He,  a  foreigner  and  a  Catholic,  shed  his  blood  and 
sacrificed  his  life  for  this  country.  And  I  am  sure  that 
the  monument  erected  by  the  grandsons  of  the  heroic  men 
who  fought  and  bled  side  by  side  with  Pulaski,  is  a  proof 
that  they  still  adhere  to  the  glorious  principles  of  their 
fathers,  who  welcomed  all  brave  men — whatever  their  race 
or  religion — to  their  country.' 

The  effect  was  electrical.  The  majority  of  the  excited 
audience  exclaimed  ‘  Bravo !  ’  and  cheered  with  ardour ; 
while  the  few  hung  their  heads  with  shame,  crushed  by 
the  implied  rebuke,  and  the  courage  which  inspired  its 
utterance. 

Father  O’Neill  lost  and  won  the  good  graces  of  a  Protes¬ 
tant  lady  by  an  admission  of  paternity,  which,  well 
understood  in  a  Catholic  country,  was  rather  startling  in 
the  America  of  that  day.  He  and  the  liev.  Mr.  Byrne, 
afterwards  Bishop  of  Arkansas,  were  travelling  from  Fay¬ 
etteville  to  Cheraw,  in  South  Carolina,  and  stopped  for  the 
night  at  the  house  of  a  respectable  Protestant  lady.  The 
lady  being  elderly,  used  the  privilege  of  her  sex,  and  made 
many  enquiries  respecting  her  guests.  Having  satisfied 
herself  on  various  points,  she  at  length  asked  Father 
O’Neill  if  he  had  a  family.  ‘Yes,  madam,’  replied  the 
priest.  ‘How  many  children  have  you,  sir?’  enquired 
the  lady.  ‘Two  hundred,  madam,’  was  the  astounding 


404 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


answer/  Two — two — hundred,  sir  !  *  gasped  the  bewil¬ 
dered  hostess.  ‘Yes,  madam — two  hundred,’  coolly  replied 
her  guest.  Had  there  been  Mormons  in  those  days,  she 
might  have  imagined  she  had  afforded  hospitality  to  Brig¬ 
ham  Young  himself  ;  but  as  Joe  Smith  had  not  then  made 
his  famous  discovery,  she  possibly  had  a  vague  idea  of  the 
Grand  Turk,  or  some  such  polygamous  potentate,  being 
beneath  her  modest  roof.  She  became  silent  and  reserved, 
displaying  an  icy  civility  to  the  minister  with  the  appal¬ 
lingly  large  family.  On  a  subsequent  occasion  Mr.  Byrne 
travelled  alone,  and  stopped  at  the  same  house.  The  old 
lady  rather  hesitatingly  enquired  after  ‘  the  other  minister,’ 
and  then,  with  more  marked  hesitation,  asked  if  it  were 
really  true  that  he  had  so  enormous  a  family  as  he  said  he 
had.  Father  Byrne  laughed  heartily  at  the  question,  but 
more  at  the  manner  in  which  it  was  asked,  and  explained 
that  Catholic  priests  did  not  marry  ;  that  by  his  200  ‘  child¬ 
ren’  Father  O’Neill  meant  his  congregation — whom  he 
regarded  in  that  light.  The  old  lady’s  face  brightened 
with  pleasure  at  the  explanation  of  what  had  been  a  source 
of  serious  and  constant  perplexity  to  her  ever  since  she  had 
heard  the  startling  statement  from  the  lips  of  ‘the  other 
minister.’  ‘Well,  sir,  he  must  be  a  good  man!’  she  said; 
‘  I  am  sorry  I  did  not  understand  him  at  the  time.  That’s 
just  the  way  a  minister  should  speak  and  think  of  his  flock. 
Be  sure,  sir,  to  give  him  my  respects  when  you  meet  him, 
and  tell  him  I  shall  be  always  happy  to  have  him  in  this 
house.’  For  the  future  the  good  old  soul  felt  no  embarrass¬ 
ment  when  enquiring  after  the  two  hundred  children  of 
the  Irish  Priest. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 


Dangers  from  within  and  without — The  Lay  Trustees — A  Daring 
Hoax — Burning  of  the  Charlestown  Convent — A  Grateful  Ruf¬ 
fian— ‘Awful  Disclosures  of  Maria  Monk’ — Protestant  Verdict 
on  Maria  Monk. 


1HERE  were  in  those  early  days  of  the  American  Church 


X  dangers  from  within  as  well  as  dangers  from  without, 
and  it  may  be  said  that  the  former  were  more  perilous 
to  the  Church,  and  a  more  formidable  obstacle  to  her  influ¬ 
ence  and  progress,  than  those  which  were  purely  external. 
These  interior  causes  of  difficulty  arose  mainly  from  the 
system  of  lay  trusteeship,  which  in  too  many  dioceses — - 
notably  Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  Charleston — were 
the  occasion  of  long-standing  feuds,  and  of  grave  public 
scandal.  Certain  members  of  the  laity — generally  men  of 
little  faith,  much  vanity,  and  strong  self-conceit — braved 
and  defied  the  authority  of  their  Bishops,  treated  with  con¬ 
tempt  the  discipline  of  the  Church,  and  even  ventured  to 
appoint  and  dismiss  pastors  at  their  pleasure !  The  great 
body  of  the  faithful  had  no  sympathy  whatever  with  the 
acts  of  those  who,  not  only  by  their  intrigues  and  turbu¬ 
lence,  but  by  making  their  contentions  the  subject  of  con¬ 
stant  proceedings  in  courts  of  law,  brought  much  discredit 
on  Catholicity.  It  required,  on*  the  part  of  the  Bishop 
who  found  himself  so  painfully  circumstanced,  not  merely 
the  greatest  prudence  and  wisdom,  but  firmness  and  de¬ 
termination.  Occasionally,  either  through  gentleness  of 
nature  or  utter  weariness  of  soul,  or  from  a  spirit  of  con¬ 
ciliation — in  the  hope  of  healing  an  ugly  wound,  and 


m 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


preventing  further  evil — a  Bishop  consented  to  surrender 
some  portion  of  his  legitimate  authority  ;  but  there  were 
others,  and  those  the  larger  number,  who,  being  of  stronger 
and  sterner  nature,  resolutely  set  their  foot  against  all 
and  every  encroachment  on  the  episcopal  functions,  and,  by 
sheer  force  of  character,  vanquished  the  intriguers,  and 
crushed  schism  wherever  it  showed  its  head.  It  would  be  a 
profitable  task  to  refer  further  to  events  which  may  be  left 
to  merited  oblivion,  but  which  planted  thorns  in  the  mitre 
of  many  an  American  prelate.  There  is,  however,  a  cir¬ 
cumstance  connected  with  the  schism  in  Philadelphia  to 
which  allusion  may  be  made  with  profit. 

To  the  conduct  of  a  misguided  and  headstrong  priest 
named  Hogan,  who  afterwards  apostatized  and  took  to 
self  a  wife,  was  due  a  prolonged  scandal  in  the  city  of 
Philadelphia.  It  is  sufficient  to  state  that,  although  deprived 
of  his  faculties  by  his  bishop,  he  still  continued  to  perform 
the  priestly  functions — openly  defying  the  episcopal  au¬ 
thority.  The  daring  contumacy  of  the  unhappy  man  left 
no  option  to  the  bishop  but  at  once  to  cut  him  off  from 
the  church  of  which  he  proved  himself  so  unworthy  a 
minister ;  and  the  priest  was  accordingly  excommunicated 
according  to  the  form  prescribed  by  the  Roman  pontifical. 
This  necessary  act  of  vigour  on  the  part  of  the  Bishop  of 
Philadelphia  was  made  the  occasion  of  one  of  the  most 
daring  literary  frauds  probably  heard  of  in  America  before 
that  date — though,  as  we  shall  show  a  little  further  on,  a 
second,  of  more  serious  consequences,  was  perpetrated  in 
a  few  years  after.  The  excommunication  being  a  matter 
of  public  notoriety,  it  was  deemed  advisable  by  the  enemies 
of  the  Church  to  turn  it  to  the  best  account  against  the 


‘tyranny  and  despotism  of  Home;’  and  accordingly  there 
was  published  in  a  Philadelphia  newspaper  a  form  of  ex- 
communication  which,  naturally  enough,  excited  no  little 
horror  in  the  mind  of  the  community.  A  sample  or  two 


A  DARING  HOAX. 


407 


of  this  precious  document  will  afford  the  reader  a  sufficient 
idea  of  the  whole  : 

May  he  be  damned  wherever  he  be,  whether  in  the  honse  or  in  the 
stable,  the  garden,  or  the  field,  or  the  highway,  or  in  the  path,  or  in 
the  wood,  or  in  the  water,  or  in  the  church  ;  may  he  be  cursed  in 
living  and  in  dying . 

May  he  be  cursed  inwardly  and  outwardly,  may  he  be  cursed  in  his 
brains,  and  in  his  vertex — in  his  temples,  in  his  eyes,  in  his  eyebrows, 
in  his  cheeks,  in  his  jaw-bones,  in  his  nostrils,  in  his  teeth  and  grind¬ 
ers,  in  his  lips,  in  his  throat,  in  his  shoulders,  in  his  arms,  in  his 
fingers. 

May  he  be  damned  in  his  mouth,  in  his  breast,  in  his  heart  and 
purtenance,  down  to  the  very  stomach. 

Even  liis  ‘ toe-nails’  were  not  spared  in  this  terrible 
anathema.  Those  who  search  for  the  original  of  this  ex- 
communication  in  the  Roman  pontifical  would  fail  to 
discover  it  there  ;  but  those  familiar  with  light  literature 
may  find  it  in  Tristram  Shandy !  In  his  Miscellany ,  which 
did  so  much  for  the  defence  of  the  Church  and  the 
cause  of  religion,  Bishop  England,  who  was  thoroughly 
familiar  with  the  writings  of  Laurence  Sterne,  promptly 
exposed  the  unblushing  fraud.  But  as  it  is  difficult  to 
overtake  a  lie,  let  it  have  never  so  short  a  start,  mairy 
believed  in  the  cursing  of  the  grinders  and  the  toe-nails — 
perhaps  do  to  this  day. 

That  the  spirit  of  hostility  to  the  Catholic  Church  was 
as  virulent  as  ever,  we  have  evidence  in  the  Pastoral  Letter 
of  1833  ;  and  an  event  which  followed  shortly  after — the 
burning  of  the  convent  of  Charlestown,  Massachusetts — is 
a  proof  how  successful  were  the  appeals  which  were  then, 
as  in  years  subsequent,  made  by  malignant  sectaries  and 
dishonest  politicians  to  the  passions  of  the  unthinking  and 
the  brutal.  The  Bishops  say  : — 

We  notice  with  regret  a  spirit  exhibited  by  some  of  the  conductors 
of  the  press  engaged  in  the  interests  of  those  brethren  separated 
from  our  communion  which  has  within  a  few  years  become  more 
unkind  and  unjust  in  our  regard.  Not  only  do  they  assail  us  and 


408 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


our  institutions  in  a  style  of  vituperation  and  offence,  misrepresent 
our  tenets,  vilify  our  practices,  repeat  the  hundred-times-refuted  cal¬ 
umnies  of  days  of  angry  and  hitter  contention  in  other  lands,  but  they 
had  even  denounced  you  and  us  as  enemies  to  the  republic,  and  have 
openly  proclaimed  the  fancied  necessity  of  not  only  obstructing  our 
progress,  but  of  using  their  best  efforts  to  extirpate  our  religion  5  and 
for  this  purpose  they  have  collected  large  sums  of  money.  It  is 
neither  our  principle  nor  our  practice  to  render  evil  for  evil,  nor  railing 
for  railing ;  and  we  exhort  you  rather  to  the  contrary,  to  render  bless¬ 
ing,  for  unto  this  you  are  called,  that  you  by  inheritance  may  obtain 

a  blessing . We  are  too  well  known  to  our  fellow  citizens 

to  render  it  necessary  that  we  should  exhibit  the  utter  want  of  any 
ground  upon  which  such  charges  could  rest.  We,  therefore,  advise 
you  to  heed  them  not ;  but  to  continue,  whilst  you  serve  God  with 
fidelity,  to  discharge,  honestly,  faithfully,  and  with  affectionate  attach¬ 
ment,  your  duties  to  the  government  under  which  you  live,  so  that 
we  may,  in  common  with  our  fellow-citizens,  sustain  that  edifice  of 
rational  liberty  in  which  we  find  such  excellent  protection. 


There  are  in  Charlestown — a  little  outside  the  City  of 
Boston,  which  boasts,  perhaps  with  justice,  of  being  the 
Athens  of  America — two  monuments.  One  is  a  monu¬ 
ment  of  glory.  The  other  is  a  monument  of  shame.  On 
Bunker’s  Hill  is  reared  aloft  a  noble  pillar,  on  which  is 
recorded  the  triumph  of  a  young  nation  in  the  proud  as¬ 
sertion  of  its  right  to  govern  itself  ;  and  among  the  names 
of  the  heroes  who  fought  and  bled  in  the  cause  of  human 
liberty  are  those  of  Catholics,  foreigners  and  natives.  On 
Mount  Benedict,  from  which  the  tower  of  liberty  was  every 
clay  beheld,  there  remain  to  this  hour  the  blackened  ruins 
of  the  Ursuline  Convent,  destroyed  on  the  night  of  the 
11th  of  August,  1834,  by  a  ferocious  mob,  to  whose  law¬ 
less  violence  neither  check  nor  impediment  of  any  kind 
was  offered.  Deceived  by  reckless  falsehood,  blinded  by 
the  foulest  calumnies,  their  passions  infuriated  by  the 
harangues  of  clerical  incendiaries,  a  savage  multitude  flung 
themselves  upon  the  dwelling  of  helpless  women  and 
innocent  children,  and  after  plundering  whatever  was 


BURNING  OF  THE  CHARLESTOWN  CONVENT. 


400 


portable,  and  destroying  what  they  could  not  take  away, 
set  tire  to  it  amidst  fiendish  rejoicings,  and  with  the 
most  complete  impunity.  What  wras  the  origin  of  this 
infamous  exhibition  of  ferocity  and  cowardice?  A  lie — a 
fiction — an  invention — the  coinage  of  a  wicked  or  a  foolish 
brain.  It  was  the  old  story,  so  grateful  to  the  ear  of 
bigotry.  A  nun  was  said  to  be  detained  in  the  convent 
against  her  will,  and  was  there  pining  in  a  subterranean 
dungeon !  The  old  story,  but  of  marvellous  vitality  and 
eternal  freshness — told  in  Boston  thirty-three  years  since 
— told  in  Montreal  in  a  few  months  after — told  yesterday 
or  to-day  of  any  convent  in  England.  To  this  story,  old 
and  yet  ever  new,  was  added  the  usual  imputation  of 
the  systematic  infamy  of  women  whose  lives  were  devoted 
to  God’s  service.  On  Sunday — the  Lord’s  Day ! — the  trum¬ 
pet-note  of  hate  was  sounded  from  more  than  one  pulpit ; 
and  on  Monday  night  the  fine  institution,  erected  at  great 
cost,  was  given  to  destruction. 

It  would  be  a  malignant  slander  on  the  fair  fame  of 
Boston  to  assert  that  this  disgraceful  outrage,  which  sent 
a  thrill  of  horror  and  disgust  through  the  civilised  world, 
was  sympathised  with  by  any  considerable  portion  of  the 
citizens  of  that  enlightened  community.  So  far  fronv 
sympathising  with  a  deed  which  was  in  the  last  degree 
dishonouring  to  the  reputation  of  their  city,  a  number  of 
Protestant  gentlemen,  of  position  and  influence,  were 
appointed  at  a  meeting,  publicly  held  the  day  after  in 
Faneuil  Hall,  to  investigate  the  circumstances  of  the  out¬ 
rage,  and  assist  in  bringing  the  perpetrators  to  justice.  A 
report  was  presented  by  that  committee,  with  the  signa¬ 
tures  of  thirty-eight  eminent  citizens  attached  to  it.  Drawn 
up  with  singular  ability,  it  put  to  shame  the  miserable 
bigots  to  whose  malice  or  fanatical  credulity  the  national 
scandal  was  entirely  owing.  The  Committee,  after  describ¬ 
ing  the  Order  of  Drsulines,  their  objects,  and  their  institu¬ 
tion — of  which  they  state  that  of  sixty  pupils,  *  for  the  most 


the  irisii  ;n  America. 


410 

part  children  of  those  among  the  most  respectable  families 
in  the  country,  of  various  religious  denominations,’  not 
more  than  ten  of  whom  at  any  time  were  Catholics— 
they  present  a  striking  picture  of  the  outrage,  which 
they  indignantly  denounce.  Even  at  this  day — for  cal¬ 
umny  is  still  rife,  and  fanaticism  never  dies — it  may  be 
useful  as  well  as  instructive  to  reproduce  this  startling 
description  of  what  men  will  do  when  impelled  by  a  blind 
savage  impulse  of  unchristian  hate. 

‘  At.  the  time  of  this  attack  upon  the  convent,’  say  the  Committee 
of  Protestant  gentlemen,  ‘  there  were  within  its  walls  about  sixty 
female  children  and  ten  adults,  one  of  whom  was  in  the  last  stage  of 
pulmonary  consumption,  another  suffering  under  convulsion  fits,  and 
the  ufthappy  female  who  had  been  the  immediate  cause  of  the  excite¬ 
ment  was,  by  the  agitation  of  this  night,  in  raving  delirium.  No 
warning  was  given  of  the  intended  assault,  nor  could  the  miscreants, 
by  whom  it  was  made,  have  known  whether  their  missiles  might  not 
kill  or  wound  the  helpless  inmates  of  this  devoted  dwelling.  For¬ 
tunately  for  them,  cowardice  prompted  what  mercy  and  manhood 
denied :  after  the  first  attack  the  assailants  paused  awhile,  from  the 
fear  that  some  secret  force  was  concealed  in  the  convent,  or  in  ambush 
to  surprise  them  ;  and  in  the  interval  the  governess  was  enabled  to 
secure  the  retreat  of  her  little  flock  and  terrified  sisters  into  the  garden. 
But  before  this  was  fully  effected,  the  rioters,  finding  they  had  nothing 
but  women  and  children  against  them,  regained  their  courage,  and  ere 
all  the  inmates  could  escape,  entered  the  building . 

‘Three  or  four  torches,  which  were,  or  precisely  resembled  engine 
torches,  were  then  brought  up  from  the  road ;  and  immediately  upon 
lh«*ir  arrival  the  rioters  proceeded  into  every  room  in  the  building, 
rifling  every  drawer,  desk,  and  trunk  which  they  found,  and  breaking 
up  and  destroying  all  the  furniture*  and  casting  much  of  it  from  the 
windows  5  sacrificing  in  their  brutal  fury  costly  pianofortes,  and  harps, 
and  other  valuable  instruments,  the  little  treasures  of  the  children 
abandoned  in  the  hasty  flight,  and  even  the  vessels  and  symbols  of 
Christian  worship. 

‘  Alter  having  thus  ransacked  every  room  in  the  building,  they 
proceeded,  with  great  deliberation,  about  one  o’clock,  to  make  prepa¬ 
rations  for  setting  fire  to  it.  For  this  purpose,  broken  furniture, 
books,  curtains,  and  other  combustible  materials,  were  placed  in  the 
centre  of  several  of  the  rooms ;  and,  as  if  in  mockery  of  God  as  well 
as  of  man,  the  Bible  teas  cast,  with  shouts  of  exultation,  upon  the  pile 


A  GRATEFUL  RUFFIAN. 


•Ill 


first  kindled ;  and  as  upon  this  were  subsequently  thrown  Hie  vestments 
used  in  religious  service,  and  the  ornaments  of  the  altar,  those  shouts  and 
yells  were  repeated.  Nor  did  they  cease  until  the  cross  icas  wrenched 
from  its  place,  as  the  final  triumph  of  this  fiendish  enterprise 

But  the  work  of  destruction  did  not  end  here ;  for  after 
burning  down  the  bishop’s  lodge,  in  which  there  was  a 
valuable  library,  the  rioters  proceeded  to  the  farm-house, 
and  gave  it  also  to  the  flames,  and  then  reduced  an  exten¬ 
sive  barn  to  ashes.  ‘  And  not  content  with  all  this,’  say  the 
Committee  of  Protestant  gentlemen,  ‘  they  burst  open  the 
tomb  of  the  establishment,  rifled  it  of  the  sacred  vessels 
there  deposited,  wrested  the  plates  from  the  coffins,  and 
exposed  to  view  the  mouldering  remains  of  their  tenants  !  ’ 

‘Nor,’  say  they,  ‘is  it  the  least  humiliating  feature  in  this  scene  of 
cowardly  and  audacious  violation  of. all  that  man  ought  to  hold  sacred 
and  dear,  that  it  was  perpetrated  in  the  presence  of  men  vested  with 
authority,  and  of  multitudes  of  our  fellow-citizens,  while  not  one  arm 
was  lifted  in  defence  of  helpless  women  and  children,  or  in  vindication 
of  the  violated  laws  of  God  and  man.  The  spirit  of  violence,  sacrilege, 
and  plunder  reigned  triumphant.  Crime  alone  seemed  to  confer  cour¬ 
age,  while  Immunity,  manhood,  and  patriotism  quailed,  or  stood  irreso¬ 
lute  and  confounded  in  its  presence.’ 

•  • 

The  report,  able  and  searching,  thus  stingingly  con¬ 
cludes  :  c  And  if  this  cruel  and  unprovoked  injury,  perpe¬ 
trated  in  the  heart  of  the  commonwealth,  be  permitted  to 
pass  unrepaired,  our  boasted  toleration  and  love  of  order, 
our  vaunted  obedience  to  law,  and  our  ostentatious  prof¬ 
fers  of  an  asylum  to  the  persecuted  of  all  sects  and  nations, 
may  well  be  accounted  vainglorious  pretensions,  or  yet 
more  wretched  hypocrisy.’ 

There  were  trials,  no  doubt  ;  but,  save  in  one  instance, 
they  ended  in  the  acquittal  of  the  accused,  of  whom  the 
leader  was  a  ferocious  savage,  who  thus  addressed  his 
sympathising  friends  through  the  public  press  : 

A  Card. — -John  R.  Buzzell  begs  leave,  through  your  paper,  to 
tender  his  sincere  thanks  to  the  citizens  of  Charlestown,  Boston, 


412 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


and  Cambridge,  for  the  expressions  of  kindness  and  philanthropy 
manifested  towards  him  on  his  acquittal  of  the  charge  of  aiding  in 
the  destruction  of  the  convent  5  also  would  gratefully  remember  the 
gentlemanly  deportment  of  Mr.  Watson,  while  imprisoned  in  Cam 
bridge  Gaol. 

Tlie  reader  may  be  pardoned  for  not  knowing  whether 
it  was  the  individual  complimented  for  his  gentlemanly 
deportment,  or  the  author  of  this  card — this  ludicrous  and 
shameful  commentary  on  the  whole  proceedings — that 
was  imprisoned.  We  must  assume  that  Mr.  John  It. 
Buzzell,  the  gallant  leader  in  the  outrage  on  women  and 
children,  was  the  unwilling  tenant  of  the  jail  of  which 
Mr.  Watson  was  the  custodian  of  gentlemanly  deportment. 
Before  this  wretched  man  Buzzell  died,  he  admitted,  what 
his  jury  would  not,  that  he  was  one  of  the  perpetrators  of 
the  outrage.  And  from  the  day  that  Mr.  Buzzell  returned 
his  thanks  for  the  £  kindness  and  philanthropy  ’  of  those 
who  stamped,  and  yelled,  and  clapped  their  hands  at  his 
acquittal,  and  for  Mr.  Watson’s  ‘  gentlemanly  deportment  ’ 
to  him  while  in  jail,  that  atrocious  violation  of  the  laws  of 
God  and  man  is,  we  shall  not  say  unavenged,  but  yet 
unredressed  ;  to  this  hour,  and  as  it  were  within  the  very 
shadow  of  the  proud  record  of  Boston’s  glory,  lie  the 
blackened  evidences  of  Boston’s  shame. 

Bigotry  is  the  most  contagious  of  all  diseases  of  the 
human  mind,  nor  is  there  any  moral  epidemic  whose 
poison  travels  more  swiftly,  or  affects  more  readily  or 
more  fatally  the  sobriety  of  communities.  •  From  Charles¬ 
town,  Massachusetts,  to  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  the 
malignant  influence  was  borne ;  but  had  the  John  R. 
Buzzells  of  the  latter  city  attempted  to  carry  their  inten¬ 
tions  into  execution,  they  would  have  experienced  some¬ 
thing  less  pleasant  than  ‘kindness  and  philanthropy’  and 
‘gentlemanly  deportment for  at  the  first  hint  of  danger, 
a  gallant  band  of  Irishmen  rallied  in  defence  of  the  men¬ 
aced  convent  of  Charleston,  and  its  Irish  Bishop  coolly 


‘AWFUL  DISCLOSURES  OF  MARIA  MONK.’ 


413 


examined  the  flints  of  their  rifles,  to  satisfy  himself  that 
there  should  be  no  missing  fire — no  failure  of  summary 
justice.  The  John  R.  Buzzells  are  brave  against  women  ; 
but  they  care  less  to  see  a  man’s  eye  gleaming  along  a 
musket-barrel,  if  the  ominous-looking  tube  be  pointed  at 
their  precious  persons.  So  in  South  Carolina  and  in  other 
States,  the  resolute  attitude  of  those  who  would  have 
willingly  died  in  defence  of  the  best  and  noblest  of 
humanity,  saved  the  country  at  that  time  from  still 
deeper  disgrace. 


Shortly  after  the  destruction  of  the  Charlestown  Convent 
by  fire,  there  was  perpetrated  perhaps  the  most  daring  as 
well  as  the  most  infamous  swindle  upon  public  credulity 
ever  recorded  in  the  history  of  fraud  ;  namely,  the  ‘  Awful 
Disclosures  of  Maria  Monk  ’ — the  result  of  a  foul  con¬ 
spiracy,  of  which  a  dissolute  preacher  and  his  miserable 
tool  were  among  the  chief  actors.  Although  that  ‘  damn¬ 
able  invention  ’  was  exposed  in  all  its  naked  vileness ; 
though  Maria  Monk’s  mother  made  solemn  oath  that  the 
abandoned  preacher,  her  daughter’s  paramour,  had,  with 
another  of  the  conspirators,  unavailingly  endeavoured  to 
bribe  her  to  support  the  imposture  ;  though  the  sect  to 
which  the  preacher  belonged,  and  whom  he  had  cheated 
in  some  money  transactions,  flung  him  off  with  public 
expressions  of  loathing ;  though  the  conspirators  after¬ 
wards  wrangled  about  their  infamous  spoils,  and  more  than 
one  of  them  admitted  the  falsehood  of  the  whole  story  ; 
though,  in  fact,  it  was  proved  that  the  Awful  Disclosures 
were  a  verbal  copy  of  a  Spanish  or  Portuguese  work  which 
had  been  translated  half  a  century  before  ;*  though  the 

*  The  Boston  Pilot  time  exposed  the  daring  imposture 

*  We  arc  ready  and  willing  to  declare  upon  oath,  that  the  extracts  which  we 
have  seen  in  the  New  York  T  ran  script ,  Boston  Morning  Post,  Salem  Gazelle .  and 
ether  respectable  periodicals,  purporting  to  be  extracts  from  the  disclosures  of 


414 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


monstrous  lie  was  disproved  in  every  form  and  manner  in 
which  a  lie  could  be  disproved — still  the  influence  of  that 
lie  is  felt  to  this  very  hour,  not  only  in  Canada  and  in  the 
States,  but  in  Europe.  While  in  Canada,  in  the  autumn 
of  1866,  I  read,  to  my  profound  astonishment,  even  more 
than  to  my  disgust,  an  article  in  a  Canadian  paper  said  to 
have  influence  with  a  certain  class,  written  in  reference  to 
education  in  convents,  and  in  which  article  the  literary 
lunatic  described  those  institutions  as  ‘sinks  of  iniquity/ 
I  might  have  supposed — did  I  not  know  that  Maria  Monk 
died  in  the  Tombs,  of  New  York,  to  which  prison  she  had 
been  committed  for  theft — that  the  conspiracy  was  still  in 
full  swing,  and  that  the  writer — to  judge  him  in  the  most 
charitable  manner — was  one  of  its  besotted  dupes.  We 
shall  hereafter  see  how  this  atrocious  book,  sworn  to  by 
the  unscrupulous  and  believed  in  by  the  prejudiced,  has 
poisoned  the  minds  of  a  generous  but  credulous  people. 

We  may  dismiss  this  revolting  case  with  a  few  lines  from 
the  statement  of  Colonel  Stone,  of  New  York,  who,  in 
company  with  some  half  dozen  other  persons,  all  of  them 
Protestants,  visited  and  inspected  the  Hotel  Dieu,  of  Mon¬ 
treal,  the  scene  of  the  alleged  iniquities,  which  included 
child  massacre  scarcely  less  wholesale  than  Herod’s  slaugh¬ 
ter  of  the  innocents..  It  may  be  remarked  that  several 
parties,  many  of  whom  were  not  without  faith  in  the  ‘Awful 
Disclosures,’  returned  from  their  investigation  with  the  same 
conviction  as  that  expressed  by  Colonel  Stone,  who  says  : — 

1  have  rarely  seen  so  many  ladies  together  possessing  in  so  great  a 
degree  the  charm  of  mannner.  They  were  all  affability  and  kindness. 

Maria  Monk,  &c  ,  are  to  be  found,  word  for  word,  and  letter  for  letter  (proper  names 
only  being  altered),  in  a  book  translated  from  the  Spanish  or  Portuguese  language, 
in  1781,  called  “  The  Gates  of  Hell  Opened,  or  a  Development  of  the  Secrets  of  Nunneries,” 
and  that  we,  at  present,  are  the  owner  of  a  copy  of  the  said  book,  which  was  loaned 
by  us,  a  year  or  two  since,  to  some  person  in  Marblehead  or  Salem,  who  has  not 
returned  it. 

The  excommunication  from  Tristram  Shandy ,  palmed  off  on  the  American  public 
as  the  genuine  Roman  article,  was  something  in  the  same  spirit— just  as  ingenious 
as  a  fraud  upon  public  credulity. 


PROTESTANT  VERDICT  ON  MARIA  MONK 


113 

Che«,rfuh  ess  was  universal,  and  very  unlike  the  notions  commonly 
entertained  of  the  gloom  of  the  cloister.  Their  faces  were  too  often 
wreathed  in  smiles  to  allow  us  to  suppose  that  they  were  soon  to 
assist  in  smothering  their  own  children,  or  that  those  sweet  spirits 
were  soon  to  be  trodden  out  of  their  bodies  by  the  rough-shod  priests 

of  the  Seminary . Indeed  I  have  never  witnessed  in  any 

community  or  family,  more  unaffected  cheerfulness  and  good  humour, 
nor  more  satisfactory  evidence  of  entire  confidence,  esteem,  and  har¬ 
mony  among  each  other. 

Having  tested  every  wall  in  tlie  building,  examined  every 
receptacle  for  potatoes  and  turnips,  every  dungeon  de¬ 
voted  to  the  incarceration  of  soap  and  candles  or  loaf  sugar, 
poked  at  mortar  with  an  iron-shod  stick,  peeped  into 
every  corner  and  crevice  of  the  whole  establishment,  and 
elaborately  traced  his  progress  and  its  results,  the  Colonel 
thus  pronounces  the  judgment  of  an  intelligent  and  ra¬ 
tional  mind  : — 

Thus  ended  this  examination,  in  which  we  were  most  actively  en¬ 
gaged  for  about  three  hours.  The  result  is  the  most  thorough  con¬ 
viction  that  Maria  Monk  is  an  arrant  impostor — that  she  never  was  a 
nun,  and  was  never  within  the  walls  of  the  Hotel  Dieu — and  consequently, 
that  her  disclosures  are  wholly  and  unequivocally ,  from  beginning  to  end , 
untrue — either  the  vagaries  of  a  distempered  brain,  or  a  series  of  calum¬ 
nies  unequalled  in  the  depravity  of  their  invention,  and  unsurpassed  in 
their  enormity.  There  are  those,  I  am  well  aware,  who  will  not  adopt 
this  conclusion,  though  one  should  arise  from  the  dead  and  attest  it — 
even  though  ‘Noah,  Daniel,  and  Job.?  were  to  speak  from  the  s' amber 
of  nges  and  confirm  it. 


4 10 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 


Bishop  England's  Devotion  to  the  Negro — The  Frenchman  Van¬ 
quished — The  Bishop  stripped  to  his  Shirt — Bishop  England's 
Death — Spiritual  Destitution — As  late  as  1817 — The  Sign  of  the 
Cross— Keeping  the  Faith — Bishop  Hughes — Bishop  Hughes 
and  the  School  Question — A  Lesson  for  the  Politicians — The 
Riots  of  Philadelphia — The  Native  American  Party — The  Bishop 
and  the  Mayor — Progress  of  the  Church. 

WE  may  return  to  Bishop  England,  ere,  worn  out — - 
spent  by  fatigue  and  malady — he  is  snatched  from 
the  faithful  that  loved  him  as  their  father,  and  from  the 
Church  which  honoured  him  as  one  of  her  stoutest  cham¬ 
pions  and  strongest  pillars. 

Notwithstanding  the  difficulties  of  his  position,  arising 
in  no  small  degree  from  the  infidel  spirit  displayed  by 
some  unworthy  members  of  his  flock,  whose  vanity  and 
self-sufficiency  rendered  them  impatient  of  all  control, 
Bishop  England  prosecuted  his  mission  with  characteristic 
energy.  Nor  were  the  three  States  which  constituted  his 
enormous  diocese  wide  enough  for  the  greatness  of  his  zeal. 
He  was  to  be  heard  of  in  most  parts  of  the  Union,  preach¬ 
ing,  lecturing,  propagating  truth,  confounding  error ;  and 
wherever  he  went  he  was  surrounded  by  the  leading  mem¬ 
bers  of  other  churches,  or  those  who  were  of  no  church,  who 
constitute  a  rather  numerous  body  in  America.  He  also 
made  frequent  visits  to  Europe  ;  and  it  is  told  of  him 
with  truth  that  from  a  chamber  in  the  Vatican  this  £  Steam 
Bishop,’  as  he  was  styled  in  Rome,  would  announce  the 
day  when  he  was  to  administer  confirmation  in  the  interior 
of  Georgia !  This  Catholic  Bishop  found  time  amidst  his 


BISHOP  ENGL  VND'S  DEVOTION  TO  THE  NEGRO. 


417 


pressing  avocations,  to  promote  tlie  spread  of  literary  and 
scientific  knowledge  in  the  City  of  Charleston  ;  and  as  a 
minister  of  peace  he  fulfilled  his  vocation  by  the  formation 
of  an  anti-duelling  association,  of  which  General  Thomas 
Pinckney,  of  revolutionary  fame,  was  the  president.  As  a 
lecturer,  few,  if  any,  equalled  Bishop  England,  and  in  the 
pulpit  he  had  no  rival  in  his  day  in  the  United  States  ; 
but  it  was  when  the  Yellow  Fever  made  havoc  among  his 
flock — black  as  well  as  white — that  the  Christian  Bishop 
was  seen  in  all  his  glory.  It  was  as  he  hurried  from  sick 
bed  to  sick  bed,  his  charity  glowing  with  an  ardour  more 
intense  than  the  sun  that  seemed  to  rain  down  fire  on  his 
head,  while  it  scorched  the  ground  beneath  his  badly- 
protected  feet,  that  those  who  were  not  of  his  communion 
thoroughly  understood  the  man.  When  the  poor  negro 
wTas  in  health,  the  Bishop  would  turn  from  the  wealthy 
and  the  learned  to  instruct  him  in  the  truths  of  religion  ; 
and  when  stricken  down  by  the  plague,  of  which  the  Black 
Vomit  was  the  fatal  symptom,  his  first  care  was  for  the 
dying  slave.  Bishop  England  did  not  venture  to  oppose 
slavery — few  men  would  have  been  rash  enough  even  to 
have  hinted  at  such  a  policy  in  his  day ;  but  he  ever 
proved  himself  the  truest  friend  of  that  unhappy  class, 
and  did  much  to  mitigate  the  hardship  of  their  position. 
His,  indeed,  was  the  policy  of  his  Church  in  America.* 

In  the  diary  from  which  I  have  quoted,  the  Bishop 
more  than  once  makes  an  entry  of  this  kind :  £  Was 
invited  to  preach  before  the  Legislature.  Preached  to 
a  numerous  and  attentive  audience.’  Not  a  word  to 
afford  an  idea  of  the  effect  produced  by  his  discourse. 
But  we  have  in  the  brief  memoir  written  by  his  devoted 
friend  and  admirer,  William  George  Read,  an  account  of 
one  of  these  discourses  and  its  effect : — 

An  illiberal  majority  was  once  organised,  in  the  Lower  House  of 
the  I  egislature  of  South  Carolina,  to  refuse  a  charter  of  incorporation 

*  See  note  at  the  end  of  the  volume. 


418 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


to  a  community  of  nuns,  whose  invaluable  services  he  was  desirous  to 
secure  for  the  education  of  the  female  portion  of  his  flock  at  Charles¬ 
ton.  They  were  a  branch  of  that  same  admirable  Ursuline  Order 
whose  convent  had  been  pillaged  and  burned,  with  such  unmanly 
cruelty,  in  one  of  our  eastern  cities.  Some  of  his  friends  procured 
him  an  invitation  to  preach  before  the  Senate,  and  many  of  the 
members  of  the  Lower  House  attended  through  curiosity.  He  spoke 
of  religion,  its  claims,  its  obligations.  He  discoursed  of  toleration, 
lie  held  up  Massachusetts  to  their  scorn.  He  adverted  to  the  subject 
of  his  charter — hurled  defiance  at  them— showed  them  how  he  could 
possess  the  entire  State,  for  ecclesiastical  purposes,  had  he  the  means 
to  buy  it,  despite  their  narrow-souled  policy.  He  exposed  to  them  the 
folly  of  driving  those  of  his  communion  from  the  high  road  of  legalised 
establishments,  into  the  bye-paths  of  the  law.  He  changed  his  theme, 
and  told  of  Catholic  charity  ;  arrayed  before  them  her  countless  insti¬ 
tutions  for  promoting  the  glory  God  and  the  welfare  of  man.  There 
was  not  a  dry  eye  in  the  house  ;  his  bill  was  passed  without  a  division 
on  the  following  day. 

It  was  strange  that,  although  Bishop  England’s  speaking 
voice  was  rich  and  tuneful,  equal  to  the  expression  of 
every  emotion,  he  had  no  faculty  whatever  for  vocal  har¬ 
mony,  and  lacked  the  power  of  turning  the  simplest  air, 
or  singing  the  least  difficult  bar  of  music.  His  efforts  at 
singing  High  Mass  were  pitiable  ;  and,  were  it  not  for  the 
solemnity  of  the  occasion,  his  performance  would  be  more 
calculated  to  excite  merriment  than  to  inspire  devotion. 
When  first  appointed  to  the  parish  of  Bandon,  an  attempt 
was  made  by  an  excellent  and  pious  man  to  try  and 
‘  hammer  ’  as  much  music  into  the  new  Parish  Priest  as 
would  enable  him  to  get  through  his  functions  as  High 
Priest  with  some  approach  to  decency  ;  but,  though  Father 
England’s  Bandon  instructor  was  animated  by  a  profound 
reverence  for  the  dignity  of  Catholic  worship,  he  failed — 
miserably  failed — in  the  hopeless  attempt.  But  what  all 
the  pious  enthusiasm  of  the  honest  Bandonian  could  not 
accomplish  for  the  ungifted  Parish  Priest,  the  vanity  of  a 
Frenchman  made  him  believe  he  could  succeed  in  achieving 
for  the  great  Bishop  of  Charleston.  The  Frenchman 
felt  confident  he  could  make  the  Bishop  sing  ;  the  Bishop 
was  certain,  and  with  better  reason,  that  he  could  not  bo 


TIIE  FRENCHMAN  VANQUISHED. 


419 


made  to  sing.  The  Professor  was  positive  in  liis  belief, 
and  demanded  the  opportunity  of  testing  his  powers,  which 
opportunity  was  freely  afforded  to  him  by  the  Bishop  ;  and 
to  work  they  went,  the  Professor  elated  with  the  antici¬ 
pation  of  his  glorious  triumph,  the  Bishop  thoroughly 
reconciled  to  his  vocal  incapacity.  They  commenced,  the 
teacher  all  zeal,  the  pupil  all  docility.  ‘  Bravi,  bravi !  ’ 
cried  the  Professor,  as  the  first  note  or  two  rewarded  a 
long  and  laborious  lesson.  The  world  would  hear  of  this 
splendid  achievement ;  all  America  would  do  homage  to 
science  in  the  person  of  the  Professor.  The  lessons  and 
the  practice  proceeded ;  but  as  they  did,  so  did  the  Pro¬ 
fessor’s  confidence  abate.  Had  the  task  been  simply  im¬ 
possible,  it  was  his  duty,  as  a  Frenchman,  to  accomplish  it ; 
but  this  was  something  more  than  impossible.  Still  the 
gallant  son  of  Gaul  bravely  struggled  on,  hoping  against 
hope — rather,  hoping  against  despair.  At  length,  even 
the  courage  of  his  nation  gave  way ;  and  thus  the  crest¬ 
fallen  Professor  addressed  his  doomed  but  smiling  pupil — 

*  Ah,  monseigneur !  vous  prechez  comme  un  ange,  et  vous 
ecrivez  comme  un  ange;  mais  vous  chantez  diablement ! 

There  is  a  capital  story  told  of  the  Bishop  doing  duty 
for  a  Protestant  pastor ;  and  it  is  so  characteristic  of  the 
liberal  side  of  American  Christianity,  that  it  may  be  given 
in  the  words  of  Dr.  England’s  enthusiastic  admirer,  Mr. 
Bead : — 

During  one  of  liis  visitations  he  had  been  obliged  with  the  loan  of 
a  Protestant  church,  for  the  purpose  of  delivering  a  course  of  lectures 
on  the  Catholic  religion.  On  Saturday  evening  the  regular  pastor 
came  to  him  to  ‘ask  a  favour.’  ‘I  am  sure,’  said  the  Bishop,  ‘you 
would  not  ask  what  I  would  not  gladly  grant.’  ‘Occupy  my  pulpit, 
then,  to-morrow !  I  have  been  so  much  engrossed  by  your  lectures 
through  the  week,  that  I  have  utterly  forgotten  my  own  pastoral 
charge,  and  am  unprepared  with  a  sermon.’  ‘  I  should  be  most  happy 
to  oblige  you,  but  are  you  aware  that  we  can  have  no  partnerships? ’ 

*  I  have  thought  of  all  that — regulate  everything  as  you  think  proper.’ 

*  At  least,'  said  the  Bishop,'  ‘  1  can  promise  you  that  nothing  shall  be 
Bald  or  done  which  you  or  any  of  your  congregation  will  disapprove,’ 


m 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA 


Ou  the  morrow  the  novel  spectacle  was  seen  of  a  Catholic  Bishop, 
arrayed  in  his  ordinary  episcopal  vesture,  advancing  to  the  pulpit  of 
this  Protestant  congregation.  He  invited  them  to  sing  some  hymns 
he  had  previously  selected  from  those  they  were  accustomed  to  ;  read 
to  them  from  the  Douay  translation  of  the  Bible  ;  recited  appropriate 
prayers,  such  as  all  could  freely  join  in,  from  a  book  of  Catholic 
devotion  ;  preached  them  a  sound  practical  discourse,  and  dismissed 
them  with  a  blessing  ;  wondering  if  such  could  be  the  doctrine  and 
the  worship  they  had  so  often  heard  denounced  as  ‘  the  doctrine  of 
devils.’ 

It  was  the  custom  of  the  Bishop  to  wear  his  ordinary 
episcopal  robes — soutane,  rotchet,  and  short  purple  cape 
— whenever  he  was  preaching,  whether  in  a  public  court¬ 
house  or  a  Protestant  church.  Many  of  these  latter  build¬ 
ings  being  in  his  time  rather  primitive  structures,  and 
affording  little  accommodation  for  robing,  he  was  frequently 
compelled  to  perform  his  ecclesiastical  toilet  behind  the 
pulpit.  This  happened  on  one  occasion,  when  his  fame 
was  at  its  height,  and  people  of  every  creed,  as  well  as 
class  and  condition,  rushed  to  hear  the  famous  preacher. 
One  of  the  robes  worn  by  a  bishop,  the  rotchet,  is  a  kind 
of  surplice,  usually  made  of  muslin  or  fine  linen,  and 
trimmed  with  lace.  Dr.  England  remained  some  time 
hidden  from  the  view  of  the  audience,  probably  engaged 
in  prayer;  and  the  expectation  was  somewhat  increased 
in  consequence.  At  length,  one,  more  impatient  or  more 
curious  than  the  rest,  ventured  on  a  peep,  and  saw  the 
Bishop  in  his  rotchet,  and  before  he  had  time  to  put  on 
his  cape ;  and,  rather  forgetting  the  character  of  the 
place,  and  the  nature  of  the  occasion,  he  cried  out  in  a 
voice  that  rang  throughout  the  building — ‘  Boys !  the 
Bishop’s  stripped  to  his  shirt ! — he’s  in  earnest,  I  tell  you ; 
and  darn  me,  if  he  ain’t  going  to  give  us  hell  this  time.’ 
The  Bishop,  who,  Irishman  like,  dearly  loved  a  joke,  and 
who  frequently  told  the  story,  ever  with  unabated  relish, 
mounted  the  steps  of  the  pulpit,  and  looked  upon  his 
audience  as  calmly  and  with  as  grave  a  countenance  as  if 
these  strange  words  had  never  reached  his  ears. 


BISHOP  ENGLAND'S  DEATH. 


421 


Too  soon,  alas !  was  tlie  life  of  the  great  Bishop  to  come 
to  a  close.  Returning  from  Europe  in  a  ship  amongst 
whose  steerage  passengers  malignant  dystentery  broke  out, 
this  noble  Christian  minister  laboured  incessantly  in  the 
service  of  the  sick.  He  was  at  once  priest,  doctor,  and 
nurse,  and  during  the  voyage  he  scarcely  ever  slej)t  in  his 
cabin  ;  an  occasional  doze  on  a  sofa  was  all  that  his  zeal 
and  humanity  would  allow  him  to  enjoy.  Exhausted  in 
mind  and  body,  and  with  the  seeds  of  the  fatal  disease  in 
his  constitution,  Dr.  England  landed  in  Philadelphia  ;  but 
instead  of  betaking  himself  to  his  bed,  and  placing  him¬ 
self  under  the  care  of  a  physician,  he  preached,  and  lec¬ 
tured,  and  transacted  an  amount  of  business  suited  only 
to  the  most  robust  health.  In  Baltimore  he  stayed  four 
days,  and  preached  five  times. 

‘When  he  arrived  here,’  says  Mr.  Read,  ‘his  throat  was  raw  with 
continued  exertion.  I  discovered  the  insidious  disease  that  was  sapping 
his  strength.  I  saw  his  constitution  breaking  up.  lie  was  warned, 
with  the  solicitude  of  the  tenderest  affection,  against  continuing  these 
destructive  efforts.  The  weather  was  dreadful.  But  he  felt  it  his 
duty  to  go  on.  He  said  only,  “I  hope  I  shall  not  drop  at  the  altar — 
if  I  do,  bring  me  home.”  He  wished  to  do  the  work  he  was  sent  to 
perform.  Exhausted  by  fatigue,  overwhelmed  with  visitors,  he  was 
yet  ready  at  the  last  moment  to  give  an  audience  to  a  stranger  who 
begged  admission  for  the  solution  of  a  single  doubt ;  and  never  did  I 
listen  to  so  precise,  so  clear,  so  convincing  an  exposition  of  the  trans- 
substantiated  presence  of  our  Redeemer  in  the  Holy  Eucharist.  His 
auditor  was  a  person  of  intelligence  and  candour,  and  the  Bishop  ex¬ 
hausted,  for  his  instruction,  the  resources  of  philosophical  objection  to 
the  sacred  tenet ;  to  show  how  futile  are  the  cavils  of  man  in  opposition 
to  the  explicit  declaration  of  God.? 

His  death  was  worthy  of  his  life.  Nothing  could  be 
more  in  keeping  with  the  character  of  the  Christian  Bishop. 
The  dying  words  of  this  great  Prelate  of  the  American 
Church,  addressed  to  his  clergy,  who  were  kneeling  round 
his  bed,  were  noble  and  impressive,  full  of  paternal  solici¬ 
tude  for  his  Hock,  and  the  most  complete  resignation  to 
the  will  of  his  Divine  Master.  He  humbly  solicited  tho 


122 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


forgiveness  of  his  clergy,  for  whatever  might  at  the  time 
have  seemed  harsh  or  oppressive  in  his  conduct ;  but  lie 
truly  declared,  that  he  had  acted  from  a  sense  of  duty,  and 
in  the  manner  best  adapted  to  the  end  he  had  in  view — 
their  good.  ‘I  confess/  said  the  dying  Prelate,  ‘it  has 
likewise  happened,  owing  partly  to  the  perplexities  of  my 
position,  and  chiefly  to  my  own  impetuosity,  that  my 
demeanour  has  not  alwavs  been  as  meek  and  courteous  as 
it  ever  should  have  been  ;  and  that  you  have  experienced 
rebuff’s,  when  you  might  have  anticipated  kindness.  For¬ 
give  me !  Tell  my  people  that  I  love  them — tell  them 
how  much  I  regret  that  circumstances  have  kept  us  at  a 
distance  from  each  other.  My  duties  and  my  difficulties 
have  prevented  me  from  cultivating  and  strengthening 
those  private  ties  which  ought  to  bind  us  together  ;  your 
functions  require  a  closer  and  more  constant  intercourse 
with  *  them.  Be  with  them — be  of  them — win  them  to 
God.  Guide,  govern,  and  instruct  them,  that  you  may  do 
it  with  joy,  and  not  with  grief.’  In  this  his  last  address 
he  did  not  forget  his  infant  institutions,  which  were  never 
so  dear  to  his  paternal  heart  as  at  that  moment,  when  he 
appealed  to  his  weeping  clergy  in  their  behalf  ;  and  to  the 
Sisters,  who  afterwards  knelt  by  his  bedside,  he  bequeathed 
lessons  of  wisdom  and  courage.  Almost  his  last  words 
were,  ‘  I  had  hoped  to  rise — but  I  bow  to  the  will  of  God, 
and  accept  what  He  appoints.’  * 

By  his  grave  stood  the  representatives  of  every  sect  and 
communion,  offering  their  last  tribute  of  respect  to  one 
who  did  honour  to  his  native  land  in  the  country  of  his 
adoption.  The  press  of  the  United  States  joined  in  one 
universal  chorus  of  sorrow  for  his  loss,  and  admiration  of 
his  exalted  merits  as  a  scholar  and  orator,  as  a  Christian 
minister,  a  patriot,  and  a  citizen  ;  for  had  he  been  born 
on  her  soil,  he  could  not  more  thoroughly  have  identified 

*  The  present  amiable  and  accomplished  Bishop  of  Charleston  was  one  of  tho 
priests  who  knelt  at  the  bedside  of  the  groat  Bishop,  and  preserved  a  faithful  record 
of  his  noble  words.  Dr.  Lynch  is  the  son  of  Irish  parents 


SPIRITUAL  DESTITUTION. 


423 


himself  with  the  glory  and  greatness  of  America  than 
he  did. 

Even  in  1842,  when  he  was  lost  to  the  Church,  his  flock 
— scattered  over  three  vast  States — did  not  exceed  8,000 
souls  ;  but  by  his  matchless  zeal  and  singular  power  of 
organisation,  and  his  firmness  in  dealing  with  the  turbulent 
and  refractory,  he  succeeded  in  establishing  order  in  the 
mist  of  chaos  ;  and,  by  his  own  living  example  of  every 
virtue  which  could  adorn  humanity,  even  more  than 
by  his  intellectual  power,  did  the  illustrious  Bishop 
England  render  the  name  of  Catholic  respected. 


When  in  1832  the  first  Council  of  Baltimore  assembled, 
the  Catholics  of  the  United  States  numbered  not  less 
than  half  a  million.  In  1830,  according  to  Bishop  Dubois, 
the  Catholic  population  of  the  diocese  of  New  York  was 
150,000,  of  whom  35,000  were  in  the  city  of  that  name. 
In  1834  the  number  in  the  latter  must  have  been  at  least 
50,000,  and  in  the  diocese  200,000,  as  emigration  was 
steadily  setting  in  ;  and  though  the  emigration  of  that 
day  was  generally  diffused  through  the  country,  still  the 
greater  portion  of  this  life-current  was  even  then  directed 
to  the  Empire  City.  There  were  at  that  time — in  1834 — - 
in  the  entire  of  the  State  of  New  York  and  the  portion  of 
New  Jersey  combined  with  it  in  the  diocese,  but  nineteen 
churches,  not  a  few  of  which  were  utterly  unworthy  of  that 
distinction-  -being  miserable  wooden  shanties,  hastily  run 
up  by  poor  congregations  ;  and  the  number  of  priests  for 
this  enormous  territory,  which  is  now  divided  into  five 
dioceses,  did  not  exceed  five-and-twenty !  Too  many  of 
the  scattered  congregations  of  this  vast  diocese  had  not  for 
years  seen  the  face  of  a  priest,  or  heard  the  saving  truths 
of  religion  from  a  minister  of  their  own  faith  ;  and  the 
young  people  grew  up  to  manhood  and  womanhood  with 
only  such  imperfect  knowledge  of  sacred  subjects  as  the 
scanty  information  of  simple  parents  could  afford  them. 


424 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


One  may  easily  imagine  how  difficult  it  was,  under  tliose 
circumstances,  for  the  Irish  Catholic  to  preserve  the  faith. 
The  Irish  Protestant,  no  matter  of  what  sect  or  denomina¬ 
tion,  found  a  church  and  a  congregation  wherever  he  went, 
and  with  him  there  was  neither  inducement  nor  necessity 
to  change.  Indeed,  the  position  held  then,  and  for  long 
after,  by  the  Catholics  in  America,  did  not  offer  any  special 
attraction  to  those  of  other  communions  to  join  their 
ranks  ;  and  while  all  sects  of  Protestantism  enjoyed  com¬ 
paratively  ample  means  and  opportunities  for  public  wor¬ 
ship,  the  Catholic  lacked  them  altogether  in  too  many 
instances.  Save  in  cities  and  towns,  and  not  always  in 
these  either,  the  Catholic  had  no  church,  no  priest,  no 
instruction,  no  spiritual  consolation — nothing,  in  fact,  to 
depend  on  for  the  preservation  of  the  faith,  until  the 
coming  of  the  better  days  for  which  he  ardently  longed, 
but  the  grace  of  God  and  his  own  steadfastness. 

Albany,  and  Buffalo,  and  Brooklyn,  and  Newark, 
which  are  now,  in  a  Catholic  sense,  cathedral  cities,  and 
the  centres  of  prosperous  dioceses,  having  a  complete 
ecclesiastical  organisation  of  their  own,  were  each  ‘served’ 
by  a  single  priest  in  1834.  When  Bishop  Dubois  visited 
Buffalo  in  1829,  he  found  a  congregation  of  800  Catholics, 
about  half  of  whom  were  Irish,  who  had  been  occasionally 
visited  by  a  clergyman  from  Bocliester  ;  but,  previous  to 
that  arrangement,  they  had  been  for  years  without  having 
seen  a  minister  of  their  Church.  The  first  church — a 
little  wooden  structure — erected  in  Buffalo  was  in  the  fall 
of  that  year.  But  in  1847,  when  Buffalo  was  formed  into 
a  diocese,  the  state  of  things  discovered  by  Bishop  Timon, 
not  only  in  his  first  visitation,  but  on  subsequent  occasions, 
was  little  different  from  that  recorded  by  Bishop  England 
of  his  three  Southern  States  ;  and  while  there  were  more 
Catholics  to  be  found  in  the  towns  springing  up  in  the 
State  of  New  York,  the  spiritual  poverty  and  destitution 
were  as  marked  in  the  North  as  in  the  South.  Bishop 
Timon  had  fifteen  priests  to  assist  him,  and  sixteen 


AS  LATE  AS  1847. 


425 


churches  ;  but  we  are  told,  on  the  Bishop’s  authority,  that 
most  of  them  £  might  rather  be  called  huts  or  shanties  ;  ’ 
and  when  there  was  a  church,  of  whatever  kind,  there  was 
scarcely  a  sacred  vessel  for  the  use  of  the  altar,  and  the 
vestments  were  c  few  and  poor.’ 

There  is  the  strong  Catholic  likeness  in  all  the  Bishops' 
of  the  American  Church — the  same  energy,  the  same 
zeal,  the  same  self-sacrifice,  the  same  disregard  of  toil  or 
labour  ;  and  Bishop  Timon’s  visitation  in  1847,  or  in  years 
after,  might  be  fitly  described  in  the  very  words  employ¬ 
ed  by  Dr.  England  in  1821.  He  preached  in  Protestant 
churches,  when  they  were  offered,  or  the  Catholics  could 
obtain  ‘  the  loan  of  them,’  or  in  court-houses,  or  in  school- 
houses  ;  or,  when  he  had  none  of  these  at  his  disposal,  in 
the  open  air.  In  his  first  visitation  Bishop  Timon  con¬ 
firmed  4,617  of  his  flock,  half  of  whom  were  adults — a  fact 
significant  of  previous  spiritual  destitution.  It  is  not  to 
be  supposed  that  this  state  of  things  is  limited  to  a 
period  so  remote  as  twenty  years — it  was  the  same  in 
many  of  the  States  so  late  as  a  few  years  back  ;  and  even 
to  this  day  there  are  Catholic  families  in  America  who  have 
rarely  entered  a  church  or  heard  the  voice  of  a  priest. 

There  was  never,  at  any  time,  on  the  part  of  the  Irish 
Catholic,  a  lack  of  zeal  for  religion,  or  an  indifference  as 
to  procuring  a  place  for  the  worship  to  which,  from  his 
infancy,  he  had  been  accustomed  in  his  own  country. 
Indeed,  one  of  the  inducements  which  the  Irish  had  to 
remain  in  the  great  cities,  instead  of  pushing  on  to  take 
possession  of  the  land,  was  the  facility  afforded,  through 
heir  churches  and  their  staff  of  clergymen,  for  practising 
their  religion,  and  of  training  their  children  in  the  know¬ 
ledge  of  its  principles.  Still,  better  for  thousands  had 
they  penetrated  the  remote  forest,  and  there,  in  the  depths 
of  their  own  hearts,  kept  alive  the  love  of  the  faith,  and 
thus  lived  on  in  expectation  of  happier  days,  than  have 
yielded  to  a  feeling  which  was  commendable  rather  than 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


426 

blamable.  It  is  true,  the  children  of  mixed  marriages — 
especially  when  the  mother  was  a  member  of  some  Pro¬ 
testant  body,  and  where  the  Catholics  were  few  and  thinly 
scattered  amongst  persons  of  other  sects — did  occasionally 
adopt  the  religious  belief  of  their  relatives  and  friends  ; 
but  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases  the  faith  was  cherished, 
and  kept  strong  and  ardent  amidst  the  gravest  discourage¬ 
ments.  When  the  mother  was  a  Catholic,  there  was  little 
fear  for  the  children  ;  though  there  have  been  innumerable 
instances  of  fathers  resisting  the  influence  of  their  Baptist 
or  Methodist  wives,  and  bringing  up  their  children  in  their 
own  faith. 

There  is  not  a  priest  of  any  experience  in  the  American 
mission  that  has  not  met  with  the  most  interesting  proofs 
of  the  holy  flame  burning  in  the  hearts  of  Irish  Catholics 
far  removed  from  a  church.  The  delight  of  these  good 
people  at  a  visit  from  one  of  their  own  clergymen — the 
Sorgarth  aroon — is  indescribable.  A  friend,  who  now 
holds  an  eminent  position  in  the  ministry,  told  me  how  he 
was  affected  by  the  feeling  exhibited  by  an  Irish  woman 
whom  he  visited,  as  much  by  chance  as  design,  in  the 
course  of  a  missionary  tour  whose  extent  might  be  counted 
by  hundreds  of  miles.  He  came  to  a  house  in  the  midst 
of  the  woods,  but  surrounded  with  every  appearance  of 
substantial  comfort ;  and  on  entering  through  the  open 
doorway  he  found  a  number  of  young  people  in  the  prin¬ 
cipal  apartment.  He  was  welcomed,  but  coldly,  by  the 
elder  girl,  who  told  him  that  *  mother  ’  was  somewhere 
about  the  place  with  the  boys.  The  clergyman  asked  some 
questions,  which  at  first  were  replied  to  with  evident  re¬ 
straint  ;  but  when  he  said  he  wTas  a  Catholic  priest — and 
an  Irish  priest,  too — there  was  an  end  to  coldness  and 
reserve.  The  girl  had  taken  him  for  a  preacher,  of  one 
of  the  many  sects  to  be  found  in  every  part  of  America, 
and  her  courtesy  was  rather  scant  in  consequence.  ‘  Oh, 
Father,  don’t  go ! — I’ll  run  and  fetch  mother !  ’  cried  the 


THE  SIGN  OF  THE  CROSS. 


427 


girl,  as  she  ran  out  to  impart  the  joyful  tidings  to  her 
parent ;  the  priest  in  the  meantime  establishing  friendly 
relations  with  the  younger  children.  Soon  were  hurried 
steps  heard  approaching  the  house,  and  one  voice,  half 
choked  with  emotion,  saying  :  ‘  Mary,  Mary,  darling,  are 
you  serious? — is  it  the  priest? — is  it  really  the  priest?’ 
answered  by  that  of  the  daughter  with  :  ‘  Yes,  mother 
dear,  it  is  the  priest,  sure  enough.’  In  rushed  a  woman 

■v 

of  middle  age,  her  arms  outstretched,  and  her  face  flushed 
with  strong  excitement.  Falling  on  her  knees  on  the 
floor,  she  exclaimed,  with  an  accent  of  passionate  suppli¬ 
cation,  that  thrilled  the  priest  to  his  heart — cOh,  Father! 
for  the  sake  of  God  and  his  Blessed  Mother,  mark  me  with 
the  sign  of  the  Cross!’  Her  face,  though  merely  comely 
at  best,  was  positively  beautiful  in  its  expression  as  her 
pious  request  was  complied  with.  The  example  was  con¬ 
tagious.  The  entire  family  wTere  at  once  on  their  knees, 
and  £  Me,  Father ! — don’t  forget  me,  Father ! — Father,  don’t 
forget  me,’  from  the  youngest,  showed  how  the  mother’s 
spirit  pervaded  her  children.  It  wras  some  hours  before 
the  good  woman’s  excitement  subsided  ;  and  as  she  busied 
herself  to  do  fitting  honour  to  her  guest — wdiom  she  assured 
she  would  rather  see  in  her  house  than  the  King  on  his 
throne,  or  the  President  himself — she  constantly  broke  off 
into  pious  ejaculations,  full  of  praise  and  thanks.  The 
priest  remained  long  enough  under  her  hospitable  roof  to 
celebrate  Mass,  which  to  her  was  a  source  of  joy  unspeak¬ 
able,  as  she  looked  upon  her  dwelling  as  sacred  from 
that  moment ;  and  to  strengthen  by  his  instruction  the 
strong  impression  already  made  upon  the  minds  of  her 
children  by  their  pious  mother.  This  good  woman’s  hus¬ 
band  had  been  carried  off  by  .malignant  fever,  leaving  to 
her  care  a  large  and  helpless  family ;  but,  as  she  said, 

‘  God  gave  her  strength  to  struggle  on  for  them,’  and  she 
did  so,  bravely  and  successfully,  until  the  eldest  were  able 
to  help  her,  and  abundance  and  comfort  were  in  her 


428 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


dwelling.  For  many  years  she  had  not  seen  the  face  of  a 
priest,  or  entered  the  door  of  a  church ;  but  the  faith  was 
strong  in  her  Irish  heart,  and  every  morning  the  labours 
of  the  day  were  blessed  by  the  prayers  of  the  family,  who 
repeated  them  as  regularly  before  they  retired  to  their  un¬ 
troubled  rest ;  and  on  Sundays  the  prayers  of  Mass  were 
read,  and  the  litanies  were  recited.  Thus  was  the  faith 
kept  in  the  midst  of  the  forest,  until  the  time  came  when 
the  church  was  erected,  and  the  congregation  knelt  beneath 
its  sacred  roof,  and  the  voice  of  praise  blended  with  the 
swelling  peal  of  the  organ,  and  the  exiles  really  felt  them¬ 
selves  ‘  at  home  ’  at  last. 

When  visiting  the  Hospital  of  the  Good  Samaritan  in 
Cincinnati,  I  was  made  aware  of  a  remarkable  instance  of 
how  the  faith  was  kept  by  the  Irish  in  the  days  when,  from 
want  of  priests  and  churches,  the  spiritual  destitution  of 
Catholics  was  extreme.  In  a  ward  of  this  splendid  hospi¬ 
tal,  the  munificent  gift  of  two  Protestant  gentlemen  to  an 
Irish  Sister,*  a  young  priest  was  hurrying  fast  to  the  close 
of  his  mortal  career.  He  had  been  a  chaplain  in  the 
Federal  service,  in  which,  as  in  the  ordinary  sphere  of 
his  ministry,  he  was  much  beloved,  on  account  of  his  great 
zeal  and  devotedness  ;  but  consumption,  the  result  in  a 
great  measure  of  hardship  and  exposure,  set  in,  and  the 
termination  of  a  lingering  sickness  was  at  hand.  His 
father  and  mother — the  father  from  Tipperary,  the  mother 
from  ‘  the  Cove  of  Cork  ’ — settled  amidst  the  woods .  of 
Ohio,  about  twenty  miles  from  Cincinnati,  and  not  a  family 
within  many  miles  of  their  home.  About  that  time  there 
were  not  more  than  a  dozen  priests  in  Ohio,  Indiana, 
Illinois,  and  Missouri,  and  but  two  brick  churches  in  Ohio. 
This  was  the  state  of  things  when  Bishop,  now  Archbishop, 
Purcell  was  consecrated.  Little  spiritual  provision  then 
for  the  Irish  family  in  the  woods.  But  the  faith  was 
strong  in  the  hearts  of  the  Irish  parents,  and  they  deter¬ 
mined  that  their  children  should  not  be  without  its  know- 


*  See  page  481. 


KEEPING  THE  FAITH. 


429 


ledge.  Every  Sunday  the  father  read  the  prayers  of  Mass, 
and  then  gave  an  hour  or  an  hour-and-a-half  s  catechetical 
instruction  to  his  young  flock.  Every  night  the  younger 
children,  each  in  their  turn,  recited  the  accustomed 
prayers  ;  and  with  the  aid  of  good  Catholic  books,  and  a 
couple  of  the  best  of  the  Catholic  newspapers,  the  right 
spirit  was  maintained.  The  father,  who  was  then  in  inde¬ 
pendent  circumstances,  and  is  now  the  owner  of  700  acres 
of  land,  used  to  send,  four  times  a  year,  a  c  buggy  ’  for  a 
priest,  who  celebrated  Mass  in  the  house,  and  explained,  in 
a  better  manner  than  the  father  could  have  done,  the 
principles  of  the  Catholic  religion.  The  family  grew  up  a 
credit  to  their  Irish  father,  himself  a  credit  to  his  country. 
O.  ie  of  the  sons,  thus  taught  amidst  the  solitude  of  the 
woods,  was  then  closing  a  noble  career  of  priestly  useful¬ 
ness,  and  others  were  exhibiting  the  influence  of  their 
training  in  various  walks  of  life.  The  sound  Catholic 
teaching  at  home  counteracted  whate>ier  might  have  been 
prejudicial  in  the  district  school,  to  which,  at  a  suitable 
period,  the  young  people  were  sent.  I  had  the  satisfaction 
of  seeing  this  fine  old  Tipperary  man,  who,  at  seventy 
years  of  age,  had  the  appearance  of  one  much  younger. 
It  was  men  of  his  stamp,  I  felt,  that  did  most  honour,  in 
America,  to  their  native  land. 

Bishop  England  often  mentioned  his  visit  to  a  family 
whom  he  found  in  the  midst  of  the  woods,  and  who  had 
not  seen  a  priest  for  forty  years!  But  the  faith  had  been 
preserved  through  the  piety  of  the  parents.  The  Bishop 
described  this  wonderful  fidelity  as  a  miracle  of  grace. 

From  the  foregoing  we  learn  how  the  faith  has  been  kept : 
in  the  following  we  have  an  instance  of  what  a  humble 
man  may  do  for  its  advancement. 

In  a  rising  town  of  one  of  the  Northern  States  an  Irish 
priest,  actuated  by  religious  zeal,  attempted  to  build  a 
church  for  the  accommodation  of  his  flock,  which  at  that 
time  was  small  in  number  and  feeble  in  resources.  The 


430 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


task  was  beyond  his  and  tlieir  means,  and  the  work,  but 
partially  accomplished,  was  necessarily  suspended.  A 
poor  Irishman  was  passing  through  the  town,  on  his  way 
to  the  West,  when,  attracted  by  the  appearance  of  the 
unfinished  building,  he  enquired  what  it  was  intended  for, 
and  why  it  was  allowed  to  remain  in  that  incomplete  state. 
The  reply,  while  it  afforded  the  desired  explanation,  was 
mocking  and  derisive.  ‘  That  building !  Oh,  it  was  the 
Papists — them  Irish  Papists — that  tried  to  get  it  up  ;  it 
was  too  much  for  them ;  they  couldn’t  do ,  it,  nohow.  It 
does  look  ridiculous — don’t  it,  stranger  ?  ’  ‘  It  does  look 

mighty  quare,  sure  enough,’  was  the  quiet  rejoinder  of  the 
poor  working  man,  who  added,  as  he  first  looked  at  his 
informant,  who  had  passed  on,  and  then  at  the  incomplete 
structure  ;  c  but,  ’pon  my  faith,  I’ll  not  lave  this  place 
’till  it’s  finished,  and  I  hear  Mass  said  in  it,  too.’  He 
remained  to  labour  ;  and  being  a  sober  and  thrifty  man, 
his  labour  throve  w^h  him.  As  other  emigrants  passed 
through  the  town,  also  on  their  way  to  the  West,  he 
induced  several  of  them  to  remain,  and  to  these  he  soon 
imparted  his  own  spirit.  A  more  vigorous  effort  was 
made,  and  made  successfully,  mainly  owing  to  this  one 
humble  man,  who  ere  long  heard  Mass  in  the  temple  he 
so  effectually  helped  to  raise  ;  and  before  many  years  had 
passed,  there  were  convents  and  schools,  in  which  his  child¬ 
ren,  and  the  children  of  others  once  as  poor  as  himself, 
imbibed  a  thorough  knowledge  of  their  religion,  and 
caught  the  spirit  of  their  fathers.  To  behold  the  cross  on 
that  church  was  the  object  of  his  ardent  desire.  He  did 
behold  it,  and  so  have  many  thousands,  who  worshipped 
beneath  the  roof  which  it  adorns. 


When,  in  consequence  of  the  increasing  age  and  in¬ 
firmities  of  the  sainted  Bishop  Dubois,  one  of  those  holy 
men  whom  France  had  given  to  the  American  Church, 
Dr.  Hughes,  recently  one  of  the  most  popular  and  in- 


BISHOP  HUGHES. 


431 


fluential  of  tlie  working  clergy  of  Philadelphia,  assumed, 
as  coadjutor  Bishop,  the  practical  administration  of  the 
diocese  of  New  York,  the  state  of  things  was  not  very 
hopeful.  For  this  diocese,  of  55,000  square  miles  in  ex¬ 
tent,  there  were  then  but  twenty  churches  and  forty 
priests ;  with  lay  trusteeship  rampant  in  its  insolence, 
and  disastrous  in  its  mismanagement  ;  the  fruits  of  which 
were  to  be  witnessed  in  the  condition  of  the  city  churches, 
all  of  which  were  in  debt,  and  half  at  least  in  a  state  of 
bankruptcy,  The  venerable  Bishop  Dubois  was  past  the 
age  of  dealing  successfully  with  the  increasing  difficulties 
of  the  position.  But  the  man  who  had  been  providentially 
selected  for,  if  not  the  most  important,  certainly  the  most 
responsible  diocese  in  the  United  States,  soon  proved  him¬ 
self  to  be  in  every  way  equal  to  the  emergency. 

Bishop  Hughes  was  one  of  those  Irishmen  who,  loving 
America,  as  the  asylum  of  their  race,  rapidly  become 
American  citizens,  in  feeling,  in  spirit,  and  in  thought. 
Bold,  fearless,  and  independent,  he  determined  to  assert 
his  rights  of  citizenship  ;  and  no  idea  of  inferiority  to  the 
longest-descended  descendant  of  those  who,  at  one  time, 
were  either  colonists  or  exiles,  ever  crossed  the  mind  of 
that  stout-hearted  prelate.  As  a  minister  of  Grod,  he  was 
ever  for  peace,  and  by  preference  would  never  have  quitted 
the  precincts  of  the  sanctuary  ;  but  there  were  occasions 
when  forbearance  would  have  been  criminal,  and  quiescence 
or  meekness  would  have  been  mere  abject  baseness  ;  and 
when,  for  the  interests  of  religion  and  the  safety  of  his 
flock,  it  was  his  first  duty  to  come  forth  as  a  citizen.  And 
when  these  occasions  occurred,  his  active  interference  was 
crowned  with  success,  and  productive  of  the  happiest 
results.  Bishop  Hughes  held  the  Irish  of  New  York 
in  his  hands  and  under  his  control,  by  the  spell  of  his 
eloquence,  and  the  genuine  ring  of  his  national  convictions  ; 
and  by  their  aid,  and  with  their  fullest  sanction — backed 
by  the  congregations — he  crushed  the  baneful  abuses  of 


432 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


the  system  of  trusteeship,  and  terminated  a  struggle  which 
had  been  long  a  source  of  interior  weakness  and  external 
scandal. 

To  such  lengths  had  the  evils  of  this  system  arisen 
under  the  mild  administration  of  the  predecessor  of  Bishop 
Hughes,  that  a  committee  of  the  trustees  waited  upon 
Bishop  Dubois,  and  with  expressions  of  respect  somewhat 
inconsistent  with  the  object  of  their  mission,  informed 
him  that  they  could  not  conscientiously  vote  hire  his 
salary,  unless  he  complied  with  their  wishes,  and  gave 
them  such  clergymen  as  were  acceptable  to  them !  The 
reply  given  to  this  cool  insolence  was  characteristic  of 
tie  holy  man.  ‘Well,  gentlemen,  you  may  vote  the 
salary  or  not,  just  as  seems  good  to  you.  I  do  not  need 
much — I  can  live  .in  the  basement,  or  in  the  garret ;  but 
whether  I  come  up  from  the  basement,  or  down  from  the 
garret,  I  will  still  be  your  bishop.’ 

Bishop  Hughes  did  not  destroy  the  system  of  lay  trustee¬ 
ship  ;  he  purged  it  of  its  vicious  abuses  and  defects,  such 
as  were  opposed  to  the  principles  of  the  Church.  There 
was  much  in  it  that  was  useful,  if  not  absolutely  necessary, 
in  the  circumstances  of  the  country;  but  it  was  essential 
that  it  should  be  regulated  according  to  Catholic  princi¬ 
ples,  and  be  placed  under  proper  ecclesiastical  control. 
Bishop  Bayley,  a  thoroughly  competent  authority,  thus 
refers  to  the  services  rendered  to  the  Church  by  Dr. 
Hughes,  whose  courage  and  determination  put  an  end  to 
the  scandal,  at  least  in  the  city  of  New  York  : — 

Those  only  who  have  carefully  studied  the  history  of  the  Church 
can  form  any  idea  of  the  amount  of  undeveloped  evil  that  lay  hid 
■within  that  system  of  uncontrolled  lay-administration  of  ecclesiastical 
property,  and  which  partially  exhibited  itself  at  Charleston,  South 
Carolina,  at  Richmond,  Virginia,  in  Philadelphia,  and  more  slightly, 
but  still  bad  enough,  here  in  New  York.  The  whole  future  of  the 
Church  iu  this  country  would  have  been  paralysed,  if  it  had  been 
allowed  fully  to  establish  itself;  and,  to  my  mind,  the  most  important 
act  of  Bishop  Hughes’  life — the  one  most  beneficial  to  religion — was 


433 


BISHOP  HUGHES  AND  THE  SCHOOL  QUESTION. 

his  thus  bringing  the  Avliole  Catholic  community  to  correct  ideas  and 
right  principles  on  this  subject.’* 

Eacli  year  strengthened  the  influence  of  Bishop  Hughes 
over  his  flock  ;  and  on  two  remarkable  occasions  this  in¬ 
fluence  was  usefully  exerted, — the  first,  in  extinguishing 
a  pestilent  danger  to  faith  and  morals ;  the  second,  in 
protecting  the  peace  of  the  city  by  the  firmness  of  the 
Catholic  attitude. 

For  nearly  two  years  the  School  Question,  fiercely 
agitated  in  New  York,  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
country  at  large.  The  system  of  education  against  which 
the  Catholics  protested  was  more  than  insidiously  danger¬ 
ous — it  was  actively  aggressive ;  and  not  merely  were  the 
book  replete  with  sneer  and  libel  against  that  church 
which  all  sects  usually  delight  in  assailing,  but  the  teachers, 
by  their  explanations,  imparted  new  force  to  the  lie  and 
additional  authority  to  the  calumny.  Respectful  remon¬ 
strances  were  met  either  with  calm  disregard  or  inso¬ 
lent  rebuff.  Politicians  were  so  confident  of  having  the 
Irish  vote,  no  matter  how  they  themselves  acted,  that  they 
supposed  they  might  continue  with  impunity  to  go  in  the 
very  teeth  of  their  supporters,  and  systematically  resist 
their  just  claims  for  redress.  But  Bishop  Hughes  read 
them  a  salutary  lesson,  the  moral  of  which  it  was  difficult 
to  forget.  With  matchless  ability  he  fought  the  Catholic 
side  in  the  Municipal  Council  against  all  comers,  represent¬ 
ing  every  hostile  interest ;  and  when  justice  was  denied 
there  and  in  the  Legislature,  he  resorted  to  a  course  of 
policy  which  greatly  disturbed  the  minds  of  the  timid,  and 
the  sticklers  for  peace  at  any  price,  but  which  was  followed 
by  instantaneous  success.  Holding  his  flock  well  in  hand, 
addressing  them  constantly  in  language  that,  while  it  con- 

*  Discourse  on  the  Life  and  Character  of  the  Most  Rev.  Archbishop  Hughes, 
delivered  in  St.  Bridget’s  Church,  New  York,  Feb.  18i4,  by  the  Bight  Rev.  James 
Roosevelt  Bayley,  D.  D.,  Bishop  of  Newark.  The  substance  of  this  Discourse  is  given 
as  the  Introduction  to  the  Second  Volume  of  the  Complete  Works  of  Archbishop 
Hughes,  published  by  Lawrence  Kelioe,  New  York. 

19 


4M 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


vinced  their  judgment,  roused  their  religious  enthusiasm, 
he  advised  them  to  disregard  all  political  ties,  and  vote 
only  for  those  who  were  the  friends  of  the  new  School  sys¬ 
tem, — which,  it  may  be  remarked,  was  ‘  Godless  ’  at  best, — 
and  the  opponents  of  the  old  system,  which,  as  we  have 
said,  was  actively  aggressive.  The  Bishop  thus  put  the 
case  to  his  flock  : 

The  question  to  be  decided  is  not  the  strength  of  party,  or  the 
emolument  and  patronage  of  office,  but  a  question  between  the  helpless 

and  ill-used  children  and  the  Public  School  Society . An 

issue  is  made  up  between  you  and  a  large  portion  of  the  community 
on  the  one  side,  and  the  monopoly  which  instils  the  dangerous  prin¬ 
ciples  to  which  I  have  before  alluded,  on  the  other.  The  question 
lies  between  the  two  parties,  and  you  are  the  judges  ;  if  you  desert 
the  cause,  what  can  you  expect  from  strangers?  ...  I  have  been 
given  to  understand  that  three  out  of  four  candidates  presented  to 
your  suffrages  are  pledged  to  oppose  your  claims.  They  may  perhaps 
triumph;  but  all  I  ask  is,  that  they  shall  not  triumph  by  the  sinful 
aid  of  any  individual  who  cherishes  a  feeling  in  common  with  those 
children.  I  wish  you,  therefore,  to  look  well  to  your  candidates ;  and 
if  they  are  disposed  to  make  Infidels  or  Protestants  of  your  children, 
let  them  receive  no  vote  of  yours. 

9 

The  advice  thus  given  to  them  by  their  Bishop  was  as 
consistent  with  common  sense  as  with  decent  pride.  But 
something  more  was  required  to  be  done,  and  that  was 
done.  "With  a  few  exceptions,  the  candidates  of  all  parties 
in  the  field  were  pledged  to  oppose  the  claims  of  the 
Catholics.  An  independent  ticket  for  members  of  the 
Senate  and  Assembly  was  therefore  suggested  and  pro¬ 
posed,  and  this  was  adopted  at  a  meeting  in  Carroll  Hall, 
with  an  enthusiasm  which  was  owing  even  more  to  the 
pluck  than  to  the  appeals  of  the  Bishop.  Having,  by  a 
speech  of  singular  power,  put  the  whole  case  before  his 
immense  audience,  he  worked  them  up  to  a  state  of  ex¬ 
traordinary  excitement  with  the  true  Demosthenic  art, 
putting  to  them  a  series  of  stinging  queries,  touching,  as  it 
were,  the  very  life  of  their  honour.  ‘  Will  you  stand  by 


A  LESSON  FOR  THE  POLITICIANS. 


435 


the  rights  of  your  offspring,  who  have  so  long  suffered 
under  the  operation  of  this  injurious  system?’  ’Will 
you  adhere  to  the  nomination  made?’  ‘Will  you  be 
united?’  ‘Will  none  of  you  shrink?’  And  he  thus  con¬ 
cludes  :  ‘  I  ask  then,  once  for  all,  will  this  meeting 
pledge  its  honour,  as  the  representative  of  that  oppressed 
portion  of  the  community  for  whom  I  have  so  often 
pleaded,  here  as  elsewhere — will  it  pledge  its  honour, 
that  it  will  stand  by  these  candidates,  whose  names  have 
been  read,  and  that  no  man  composing  this  vast  audience 
will  ever  vote  for  any  one  pledged  to  oppose  our  just 
claims  and  incontrovertible  rights  ?  ’  *  The  promise,  made 
with  a  display  of  feeling  almost  amounting  to  frenzy,  was 
fully  redeemed  ;  and  2,200  votes  recorded  for  the  candidates 
nominated  only  four  days  before,  convinced  the  politicians, 
whose  promises  hitherto  had  been,  as  the  Bishop  said,  as 
large  ‘as  their  performances  had  been  lean,’  that  there 
was  danger  in  the  Catholics — that,  in  fact,  they  were  no 
longer  to  be  played  with  or  despised.  Notwithstanding 
the  pledges  to  the  contrary,  the  new  system — that  of  the 
Common  Schools — was  carried  in  the  Assembly  by  a 
majority  of  sixty-five  to  sixteen ;  and  the  Senate,  appre¬ 
hending  that  a  similar  attempt  would  be  made  at  an 
approaching  election  for  the  Mayoralty  as  that  which  had 
made  in  the  elections  of  candidates  for  the  Senate  and  the 
Assembly,  passed  the  measure.f 


*  Complete  Works  of  'Archbishop  Hughes  ;  Lawrence  Kehoe,  New  York. 
Also  Hassard’s  ‘  Life  of  Archbishop  Hughes,’  published  by  D.  Appleton  and  Co., 
New  York. 

t  Bishop  Bayley,  in  his  ‘Brief  Sketch,’  published  by  Edward  Dunigan  and 
Brother,  New  York,  thus  refers  to  the  practical  results  of  that  memorable 
contest.  The  Bishop  writes  in  1853  : — 

‘Experience  has  since  shown  that  the  new  system,  though  administered  with 
‘  as  much  impartiality  and  fairness  as  could  be  expected  under  the  circumstances, 
‘is  one  which,  as  excluding  all  religious  instruction,  is  most  fatal  to  the  morals  and 
‘religious  principles  of  our  children,  and  tbit  our  only  resource  is  to  establish 
‘schools  of  our  own,  where  sound  religious  instruction  shall  be  imparted  at  the 
‘same  time  with  secular  instniction.  If  we  needed  any  evidence  upon  the  matter 
‘it  would  be  found  in  the  conduct  and  behaviour  of  those  of  our  children  wha 


4  30 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


Fiercely  assailed  by  his  opponents,  bitterly  denounced 
by  alarmed  and  indignant  politicians,  reviled  in  every 
imaginable  manner  by  controversialists  of  the  pulpit  and 
the  press,  even  turned  upon  by  the  faint-hearted  of  his  own 
communion — that  decorous  and  cringing  class,  to  whom 
anything  like  vigour,  or  a  departure  from  rigid  rule,  is  sure 
to  cause  a  shudder  of  the  nerves — the  Bishop  of  New  York 
became,  at  once,  one  of  the  best-abused  as  well  as  one  of 
the  most  popular  men  of  the  day.  His  influence  over  the 
Irish  portion  of  his  flock  was  unbounded.  This  flock  was 
rapidly  increasing  through  emigration,  which  was  setting 
strongly  in  from  the  old  country,  then,  for  its  size,  one  of 
the  most  populous  countries  of  Europe.  Bishop  Hughes 
was  just  the  man  to  acquire  influence  over  an  Irish  con¬ 
gregation.  That  he  himself  was  an  Irishman  was,  of  course, 
no  little  in  his  favour  ;  though  there  are,  as  I  am  per¬ 
sonally  aware,  bishops  and  priests  without  a  drop  of  Irish 
blood  in  their  veins,  or  at  best  having  only  some  remote 
connection  with  the  country  which  has  given  so  many  of 
her  children  to  the  American  Church,  who  are  beloved  and 
venerated  by  their  Irish  flocks — who  are  referred  to  in 
language  of  the  warmest  affection,  and  pointed  to  with 
pride,  either  for  their  moral  excellence  or  their  intel¬ 
lectual  endowments.  But  Bishop  Hughes  was  eminently 
qualified  to  gratify  the  pride  of  a  people  who  found  in 
him  a  fearless,  a  powerful,  and  a  successful  champion — one 
who  was  afraid  of  no  man,  and  who  was  ready,  at  any 
moment,  not  only  to  grapple  with  and  overthrow  the  most 
formidable  opponent,  but  to  encounter  any  odds,  and  fight 
under  every  disadvantage.  In  his  speeches  and  letters* 
their  reader  will  behold  abundant  evidence  of  his  boldness 
in  attack,  his  skill  in  defence,  and  his  severity  in  dealing 

‘  are  educated  under  the  Christian  Brothers,  when  contrasted  with  those  who  are 
1  exposed  to  the  pernicious  influences  of  a  public  school.’ 

*  The  sermons,  letters,  lectures,  and  speeches  of  Archbishop  Hughes  are 
published  in  two  fine  volumes  by  Lawrence  Kehoe,  Nassau-street,  New  York,  by 
whom  they  are  also  edited. 


THE  RIOTS  OF  PHILADELPHIA. 


437 


with  an  enemy,  especially  one  to  whom  no  quarter  should 
be  given.  When  the  Bishop  struck,  it  was  with  no  gentle 
or  faltering  hand,  nor  was  his  weapon  a  lath  or  a  blunted 
sword :  he  struck  with  the  strength  of  a  giant,  and  the 
weapon  he  wielded  was  bright  and  trenchant,  and  never 
failed  tc  pierce  the  armour  of  his  closest-mailed  foe.  With 
the  ablest  and  most  practised  writers  of  the  public  press, 
the  most  accomplished  advocates  of  the  bar,  the  subtlest 
controversialists,  Bishop  Hughes  had  many  a  fair  tilt  in 
the  face  of  an  appreciative  public ;  and  none  of  those 
with  whom  he  was  compelled  to  come  into  conflict,  whether 
with  tongue  or  pen,  S}3eech  or  letter,  that  did  not  acknow¬ 
ledge,  or  was  not  obliged  to  admit,  the  power  of  his  mind, 
the  force  of  his  reasoning,  his  happiness  of  illustration,  and 
his  thorough  mastery  of  the  English  language.  It  was  not, 
then,  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  Irish  of  New  York,  as 
indeed  throughout  the  States,  were  proud  of  their  great 
countryman,  and  looked  up  to  him  with  confidence  and 
affection.  His  influence  over  his  flock  was  not  without 
being  submitted  to  a  severe  test. 

O 


In  1841  the  memorable  riots  of  Philadelphia  occurred. 
It  was  the  old  story  again.  Sectarian  bigotry  and  ignorant 
prejudice  appealed  to  by  reckless  firebrands  and  intriguing 
politicians ;  lies,  calumnies,  and  misrepresentations ;  old 
falsehoods  dug  up  and  furbished  afresh,  and  new  false¬ 
hoods  invented  for  the  occasion ;  clamour  from  the  press, 
the  platform,  and  the  pulpit — with  the  grand  cry  ‘  The 
Bible  in  danger ! — Save  it  from  the  Papists !  *  The  only 
possible  ground  of  this  affected  alarm  for  the  Bible  was 
the  simple  fact  that  the  Catholics  required  that  when  their 
children  were  compelled  to  read  the  Bible  in  the  Public 
Schools,  it  should  be  the  recognised  Catholic  version  of 
the  Scriptures,  and  not  the  Protestant  version.  But  the 
world  knows  how  easy  it  is  to  get  up  a  cry,  and  how  it  is 


488 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA 


oftentimes  the  more  effective  when  based  on  entire  false¬ 
hood.  Add,  then,  to  this  dishonest  cry,  unreasoning  hatred 
of  the  foreigner,  the  bitter  hostility  to  the  foreigner’s 
creed,  and  you  have  the  combustibles,  which  only  required 
a  match  and  an  opportunity,  in  order  to  ensure  an  explo¬ 
sion.  And  a  terrible  and  savage  explosion  of  human  passion 
it  was,  scattering  confusion  and  death  through  one  of  the 
fairest  cities  of  the  Union,  and  casting  discredit  on  its 
boasted  civilisation.  There  was  a  ‘  Protestant  Association  ’ 
at  its  vicious  work  in  those  days,  and  among  its  most 
active  members  were  Irishmen,  who  had  brought  with 
them  across  the  ocean  the  old  fierce  spirit  of  Orangeism, 
which  so  far  blinded  their  reason  and  stifled  their  sense  of 
honour,  that  they  were  not  ashamed  then,  as  on  subsequent 
occasions,  to  join  with  the  Native  American  and  Know 
Nothing  party,  in  their  mad  crusade  against  the  ‘foreigner’ 
— that  foreigner  their  own  countryman  !  During  the  riots 
the  Orange  flag,  the  symbol  of  fraternal  strife  in  the 
old  land,  in  which  its  children  should  leave  behind  them 
their  wicked  animosities,  was  displayed  during  the  shame¬ 
ful  riots  of  1844.*  Where  there  was  anything  like  the 
semblance  of  an  organisation  for  defence,  the  Irish  Catho¬ 
lics  displayed  a  courage  worthy  of  their  cause ;  but  the 
means  of  resistance  were  not  sufficient,  nor  were  they  taken 
in  time,  and  the  result  is  thus  described  in  the  words  of 
an  excellent  Episcopalian  clergyman,  who  felt,  with  poig¬ 
nant  shame,  the  dishonour  cast  by  national  prejudice  and 
brutal  fanaticism  upon  his  beautiful  city.  The  author  of 
the  c  Olive  Branch  ’  thus  sums  up  the  wicked  deeds  of  the 
rioters : — 

*  ‘  Though  the  party  affected  to  assail  foreigners,  yet  Irish  Orangemen,  and 
other  bitter  foreign  enemies  of  Catholicity,  were  among  its  most  conspicuous  and 
active  members.  A  dirty  Orange  flag  was  placed  on  the  top  of  the  market-house 
during  the  Kensington  (Philadelphia)  riots;  the  violent  Orange  air,  “The  Boyne 
Water,”  w;\s  played  in  triumph,  while  the  flames  were  consuming  St.  Michael’s 
Church  ;  and  a  notorious  Orangeman  was  actually  paraded  through  the  streets 
of  Philadelphia,  in  the  “temple  of  liberty,”  which  was  carried  in  procession  on 
the  4th  of  July.’ — Note  to  article  on  ‘the  Philadelphia  Hots  and  native  American 
Party,’  by  Archbishop  Spalding. 


THE  NATIVE  AMERICAN  TARTY. 


439 


The  native  American  party  has  existed  for  a  period  hardly  reach* 
ing  five  months,  and  in  that  time  of  its  being,  what  has  been  seen? 
Two  Catholic  churches  burnt,  one  thrice  fired  and  desecrated,  a 
Catholic  seminary  and  retreat  consumed  by  the  torches  of  an  incen¬ 
diary  mob,  two  rectories  and  a  most  valuable  library  destroyed,  forty 
dwellings  in  ruins,  about  forty  human  lives  sacrificed,  and  sixty  of  om 
fellow  citizens  wounded ;  riot,  and  rebellion,  and  treason,  rampant,  on 
two  occasions,  in  our  midst ;  the  laws  set  boldly  at  defiance,  and  peace 
and  order  prostrated  by  ruffian  violence. 

From  an  article  on  £  The  Philadelphia  Riots  and  the 
Native  American  Party,’  written  by  Archbishop  Spalding, 
this  extract  may  be  quoted  : — 

For  more  than  ten  years  previously  the  *  No-Popery  ?  cry  had  been 
raised,  from  one  end  of  the  Union  to  the  other;  from  the  cold  and 
puritanical  North,  to  the  warm  and  chivalrous  South.  The  outcry 
resounded  from  the  pulpit  and  the  press;  its  notes  were  fierce  and 
sanguinary ;  they  were  worthy  of  the  palmiest  days  of  Titus  Oates 
and  Lord  George  Gordon,  both  immortal  for  the  relentless  and  burn¬ 
ing  hatred  they  bore  to  their  Christian  brethren  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church.  Can  we  wonder,  then,  that  it  produced  similar 
results?  When  we  reflect  how  long  that  bitter  outcry  continued; 
how  talented,  and  influential,  and  untiring  were  many  of  those  engaged 
in  raising  it ;  how  many  different  forms  and  complexions  it  assumed 
• — now  boasting  of  its  zeal  for  the  purity  of  religion,  now  parading  its 
solicitude  for  the  preservation  of  our  noble  republican  institutions 
threatened  with  destruction  by  an  insidious  foreign  influence ;  when 
we  reflect  how  very  unscrupulous  were  the  men  engaged  in  this 
crusade  against  Catholicity,  how  many  glaring  untruths  they  boldly 
published  both  from  the  pulpit  and  the  press,  how  many  base  forgeries 
- — subsequently  admitted  to  be  such — they  unblushingly  perpetrated 
in.  the  full  light  of  day,  and  with  the  intelligence  of  the  nineteenth 
century  beaming  in  their  faces ;  when  we  reflect  that  all  this  warfare 
against  Catholics  was  openly  conducted  by  a  well-concerted  action  and 
a  regular  conspiracy  among  almost  all  the  rich  and  powerful  Protes¬ 
tant  sects  of  the  country,  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  crushing  a  par¬ 
ticular  denomination ;  and  that  this  conspiracy  was  kept  alive  by 
synodical  enactments,  by  Protestant  associations,  and  by  the  untiring 
energy  and  relentless  zeal  of  perhaps  the  richest  and  most  powerful 
sect  in  the  country,  which  ever  appeared  as  the  leader  of  the  move¬ 
ment : — when  we  reflect  on  all  these  undoubted  facts,  can  we  be  any 
longer  surprised  at  the  fearful  scenes  which  lately  set  the  stigma  of 
everlasting  disgrace  on  the  second  city  of  the  Union?* 

Reviews,  Lectures,  and  Essays,  on  Historical, 


*  Miscellanea  :  comprising 


440 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


A  strange  commentary  on  tliis  fierce  hostility  and  deadly 
strife  does  the  position  of  the  Church  in  Philadelphia  offer 
to-day.  As  many  as  five-and-twenty  churches,  crowded 
with  devout  congregations ;  noble  institutions  of  every 
description,  and  intended  to  minister  to  every  want ;  a 
Cathedral  of  unrivalled  grandeur  and  beauty,  reminding 
one  much  of  St.  Peter’s  ;  a  vast  and  orderly  flock,  rising 
every  day  in  independence  and  in  wealth  ;  and,  to  crown 
all,  a  learned  and  pious  Bishop,  who  had  been  a  Protestant ! 
Persecution  is  not  a  wise  game  for  those  who  play  it ;  for 
it  almost  invariably  happens  that  the  persecuted  have  the 
best  of  it  in  the  long  run.  So  does  Providence  dispose. 


Flushed  with  their  unholy  triumphs  of  church-burning, 
convent-wrecking,  and  house-pillaging,  a  chosen  band  of 
the  Philadelphia  rioters  wTere  to  be  welcomed  with  a  public 
procession  by  their  sympathisers  of  New  York  ;  but  the 
stern  attitude  of  the  Catholics,  obedient  to  the  voice  and 
amenable  to  the  authority  of  their  Bishop,  dismayed  the 
cowardly  portion  of  their  enemies,  and  taught  even  the 
boldest  that  discretion  was  the  better  part  of  valour. 

It  was  not  the  first  time  that  the  Catholics  of  New  York 
had  taken  a  firm  stand  against  the  frenzy  of  the  ‘No- 
Popery  ’  faction.  Shortly  after  the  burning  of  the  convent 
in  Boston,  there  was  an  attempt  made  to  destroy  St. 
Patrick’s  Cathedral.  But  the  church  was  put  in  a  state 
of  defence  ;  ‘  the  streets  leading  to  it  were  torn  up,  and 
every  window  was  to  be  a  point  whence  missiles  could  be 
thrown  on  the  advancing  horde  of  sacrilegious  wretches ; 
while  the  wall  of  the  churchyard,  rudely  constructed, 
bristled  with  the  muskets  of  those  ready  for  the  last 
struggle  for  the  altar  of  their  God  and  the  graves  of  those 
they  loved.  So  fearful  a  preparation,  unknown  to  tlio 

Theological,  and  Miscellaneous  Subjects,  by  M.  S.  Spalding,  D.D  ,  Archbishop  o< 
Baltimore,  Published  by  John  Murphy  and  Co.,  Baltimore. 


THE  BISHOP  AND  THE  MAYOR. 


411 


enemies  of  religion,  came  upon  them  like  a  thunderclap, 
when  their  van  had  nearly  reached  the  street  leading  to 
the  Cathedral  :  they  fled  in  all  directions  in  dismay.’  * 

A  meeting  of  the  Native  Americans  of  New  York  was 
called  in  the  City  Hall  Park,  to  give  a  suitable  reception 
to  their  brethren  from  Philadelphia.  The  time  for  action 
had  thus  arrived.  Bishop  Hughes  had  made  it  known 
through  the  columns  of  the  Freeman’s  Journal ,f  then  under 
his  entire  control,  that  the  scenes  of  Philadelphia  should 
not  be  renewed  with  impunity  in  New.  York  ;  and  he  was 
known  to  have  said — in  reply  to  a  priest  who,  having 
escaped  from  Philadelphia,  advised  him  to  publish  an 
address,  urging  the  Catholics  to  keep  the  peace — ‘If  a 
single  Catholic  church  were  burned  in  New  York,  the  city 
would  become  a  second  Moscow.’  There  was  no  mistaking 
his  spirit  and  that  of  his  flock — excepting,  of  course,  the 
‘good  cautious  souls  who,’  as  the  Bishop  wrote,  ‘believe 
in  stealing  through  the  world  more  submissively  than  suits 
a  freeman.’  The  churches  were  guarded  by  a  sufficient 
force  of  men,  resolved  to  die  in  their  defence,  but  also 
resolved  to  make  their  assailants  feel  the  weight  of  their 
vengeance.  By  an  extra  issue  of  the  Freeman ,  the  Bishop 
warned  the  Irish  to  keep  away  from  all  public  meetings, 
especially  that  to  be  held  in  the  Park.  He  then  called 
upon  the  Mayor,  and  advised  him  to  prevent  the  proposed 
demonstration. 

‘  Are  you  afraid,’  asked  the  Mayor,  ‘  that  some  of  your 
churches  will  be  burned  ?  ’ 

‘  No,  sir  ;  but  I  am  afraid  that  some  of  yours  will  be 
burned.  We  can  protect  our  own.  I  come  to  warn  you 
for  your  own  good.’ 

‘Do  you  think,  Bishop,  that  your  people  would  attack 
the  procession  ?  ’ 

*  The  Catholic  Church  in  the  United  States,  by  Henry  De  Courcey  and  John 
Gilmary  Shea.  Edward  Dunigan  and  Brother,  New  York. 

t  Now  in  the  hands  of  James  E.  M’Masters,  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  fearless 
writers  of  the  American  press. 


442 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


‘  I  do  not,  but  the  native  Americans  want  to  provoke  a 
Catholic  riot,  and  if  they  can  do  it  in  no 'other  way,  I 
believe  they  would  not  scruple  to  attack  the  procession 
themselves,  for  the  sake  of  making  it  appear  that  the 
Catholics  had  assailed  them.’ 

‘  What,  then,  would  you  have  me  do  ?  * 

‘  I  did  not  come  to  tell  you  what  to  do.  I  am  a  church- 
man,  not  the  Mayor  of  Yew  York  :  but  if  I  were  the 
Mayor,  I  would  examine  the  laws  of  the  State,  and  see  if 
there  w  ere  not  attached  to  the  police  force  a  battery  of  ar¬ 
tillery,  and  a  company  or  so  of  infantry,  and  a  squadron  of 
horse ;  and  I  think  I  should  find  that  there  were  ;  and  if 
so,  I  should  call  them  out.  Moreover,  I  should  send  to  Mr. 
Harper,  the  Mayor-elect,  who  has  been  chosen  by  the  votes 
of  this  party.  I  should  remind  him,  that  these  men  are 
his  supporters  ;  I  should  warn  him,  that  if  they  carry  out 
their  design,  there  will  be  a  riot ;  and  I  should  urge  him 
to  use  his  influence  in  preventing  this  public  reception  of 
the  delegates.’  * 

There  was  no  demonstration.  And  every  risht-minded 
man,  every  lover  of  peace  in  the  city,  must  have  applauded 
the  course  taken  by  Dr.  Hughes,  to  whose  prudent  flrmness 
was  mainlv  attributable  the  fact  that  Yew  York  was  saved 
from  riot,  bloodshed,  murder,  and  sacrilege,  and,  above  all, 
from  that  dreadful  feeling  of  unchristian  hate  between  man 
and  man,  citizen  and  citizen,  neighbour  and  neighbour, 
which  such  collisions  are  certain  for  years  after  to  leave 
rankling  in  the  breast  of  a  community. 


% 

We  come  now  to  the  Year  1852,  and  writness  the  srisrantic 
stride  which  the  Church  has  made  since  1833,  when  ten 
bishops  met  at  the  First  Council  of  Baltimore.  Hash  and 
German  Catholics  had  been  pouring  into  the  United 

* 


Hassard's  Life  of  Arclibishop  Hughes,  D.  Appleton  and  Co.,  New  Tori. 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  CHURCH.  4  IS 

States  by  hundreds  of  thousands  ;  and  the  200  Catholics  of 
New  York  in  1785,  and  the  35,000  of  1829,  had  become 
200,000  in  1852.  Instead  of  the  one  archbishop,  and  ten 
bishops,  of  1833,  there  were  now  six  archbishops,  and 
twenty-six  bishops ;  while  the  number  of  priests,  which 
was  about  300  in  1833,  had  now  increased  to  1385,  with 
churches  and  stations  in  proportion.  We  shall  see  how 
this  advance,  great  and  hopeful  as  it  was,  has  been  far 
exceeded  by  the  progress  made  in  the  short  space  of  the 
next  fourteen  years. 

Writing  of  the  city  of  New  York  of  1853,  Bishop 
Bayley — then  Secretary  to  Archbishop  Hughes — says  : — • 
v‘  N o  exertions  could  have  kept  pace  with  the  tide  of 
emigration  which  has  been  pouring  in  upon  our  shores. 
The  number  of  priests,  churches,  and  schools,  rapidly  as 
they  have  increased,  are  entirely  inadequate  to  the  wants 
of  our  Catholic  population,  and  render  it  imperative  that 
every  exertion  should  be  made  to  supply  the  deficiency.’ 
Something  of  the  same  kind  might  be  said  of  1867,  though 
the  means  are  now  proportionately  greater  than  they  were 
fifteen  years  before,  not  in  New  York  alone,  but  throughout 
the  United  States.  Convents,  hospitals,  asylums,  schools, 
were  then,  in  1853,  rapidly  on  the  increase,  the  Religious 
Orders  spreading  their  branches  and  establishing  their 
houses  whenever  there  was  a  chance  of  their  bare  support, 
and  often,  too,  braving  privations  similar  to  those  which 
Mrs.  Se ton’s  infant  community  endured  at  Emmettsburg 
and  at  Philadelphia  in  the  early  days  of  their  existence. 


444 


TI1E  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


The  Know  Nothing  Movement — Jealousy  of  the  Foreigner — 
Know  Nothings  indifferent  to  Religion — Democratic  Orators— 
Even  at  the  Altar  and  in  the  Pulpit — Almost  Incredible— 
The  Infernal  Miscreant — A  Strange  Confession. 


HE  KNOW  NOTHING-  movement  of  1854  and  1855 


l  troubled  the  peace  of  Catholics,  and  filled  the  hearts 
of  foreign-born  American  citizens  with  sorrow  and  indigna¬ 
tion.  They  were  made  the  victims  of  rampant  bigotry  and 
furious  political  partisanship.  There  was  nothing  new  in 
this  Know  Nothingism.  It  was  as  old  as  the  time  of  the 
Revolution,  being  Native  Americanism  under  another  name. 
Its  animating  spirit  was  hostility  to  the  stranger — insane 
jealousy  of  the  foreigner.  It  manifested  itself  in  the 
Convention  which  formed  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  though  the  right  to  frame  that  Constitution  had 
been  largely  gained  through  the  valour  of  adopted  citizens, 
born  in  foreign  countries,  and  through  the  aid  and  assist¬ 
ance  of  a  foreign  nation.  It  manifested  itself  in  the  year 
1796,  in  laws  passed  during  the  Administration  of  President 
Adams,  a  narrow-minded  man,  much  prejudiced  against 
foreigners.  The  Alien  Act,  which  was  one  of  the  most 
striking  results  of  the  illiberal  spirit  of  that  day,  provided 
— ‘That  the  President  of  the  United  States  shall  be,  and 
is  hereby  authorised,  in  any  event  aforesaid,  by  his  pro¬ 
clamation  thereof ’  or  other  public  act,  to  direct  the  con¬ 
duct  to  be  observed,  on  the  part  of  the  United  States, 
towards  Aliens  ....  the  manner  and  decree  of  the  re- 


jealousy  of  the  foreigner. 


445 


straint  to  which  tlicv  shall  be  subjected,  and  in  what 
cases,  and  upon  what  security  their  residence  shall  be 
permitted,  and  to  provide  for  the  removal  of  those  who, 
not  being  permitted  to  reside  in  the  United  States,  shall 
refuse  or  neglect  to  depart  therefrom.’  Here  was  a  despo¬ 
tism  marvellously  inconsistent  with  the  object  and  purpose 
of  the  struggle  which  secured  freedom  and  independence 
to  the  revolted  colonies  of  England !  Here  also  was  folly 
bordering  upon  madness,  in  discouraging  that  great  ex¬ 
ternal  resource,  through  which  alone  the  enormous  terri¬ 
tory  even  then  comprehended  within  the  limits  of  the 
Union  could  be  populated  and  civilised — namely,  the 
foreign  element — those  impelled,  through  various  causes 
and  motives,  to  cross  the  ocean,  and  make  their  home  in 
America.  Remembering  the  history  of  the  last  fifty 
years,  during  which  thousands,  hundreds  of  thousands, 
nay  millions  of  the  population  of  Europe  have  been  spread¬ 
ing  themselves  over  the  vast  American  continent,  building 
up  its  cities,  penetrating  and'  subduing  its  forests,  re¬ 
claiming  its  wastes,  constructing  its  great  works,  develop¬ 
ing  its  resources,  multiplying  its  population — in  a  word, 
making  America  what  she  is  at  this  day — one  does  not 
know  whether  to  laugh  at  the  absurdity  of  those  who 
imagined  that,  without  injury  to  the  future  of  the  States, 
they  might  bar  their  ports  to  emigrants  from  foreign 
countries  ;  or  doubt  the  sanity  of  those  who  could  delibe¬ 
rately  proclaim,  as  the  Hartford  Convention  of  1812  did — 
‘That  the  stock  of  population  already  in  these  States  is 
‘  amply  sufficient  to  render  this  nation  in  due  time  suffi- 
‘  ciently  great  and  powerful,  is  not  a  controvertible  ques- 
‘  tion.’  *  Certainly  not  controvertible  to  vanity  and  folly, 
which  were  stimulated  by  absurd  jealousy  and  causeless 
apprehension.  The  generous  men  who  assembled  at  Hart¬ 
ford  were  willing  to  ‘offer  the  rights  of  hospitality’  to  the 
strangers,  under  such  conditions  as  those  imposed  in  the 


*  For  the  disproof  of  this  absurd  boast,  see  -Appendix. 


446 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


Alien  Act  ;  but  they  took  care  to  restrict  their  munificence 
to  such  fair  limits  as  would  secure  all  the  honours  and 
emoluments  to  themselves.  Thus  :  ‘  No  person  who  shall 
hereafter  be  naturalised  sliaU  be  eligible  as  a  member  of 
the  Senate  or  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United 
States,  nor  capable  of  holding  any  office  under  the  autho¬ 
rity  of  the  United  States.’  The  Alien  and  Sedition  laws, 
passed  in  the  Administration  of  Adams,  were  repealed, 
fourteen  years  afterwards,  by  the  Jefferson  Administration. 
These  laws  were  repugnant  to  the  spirit  of  the  American 
Constitution  ;  and  in  opposing  such  law~s,  and  confronting 
the  narrow  and  ungrateful  policy  in  which  they  originated, 
Jefferson  and  Madison  were  simply  treading  in  the  broad 
footprints  of  the  illustrious  Washington. 

This  hostility  to  the  foreigner,  intensified  by  religious 
prejudice,  exhibited  itself  on  various  occasions — notably 
in  the  disgraceful  riots  of  1844  ;  but  on  no  occasion  was 
the  feeling  so  universal,  or  its  display  so  marked,  as  in 
the  years  1854  and  1855,  when  the  banner  of  Know 
Nothingism  was  made  the  symbol  of  political  supremacy.  * 
Here  was  every  element  necessary  to  a  fierce  and  relentless 
strife.  The  Constitution  of  Know  Nothingism  was  anom¬ 
alously  adopted  on  the  17th  of  June,  1854,  the  anniversary 
of  the  Battle  of  Bunker’s  Hill.  Strange,  that  a  day  sacred 
to  the  freedom  of  America  should  be  that  on  which  citizens 
of  a  free  republic  should  plot  in  the  dark  against  the  liber¬ 
ties  of  their  fellow  men.  But  so  it  was.  A  very  few  ex¬ 
tracts  from  authentic  documents  will  declare  the  motives 
and  objects  of  this  organisation  : — 

Article  II. 

A  person  to  become  a  member  of  any  subordinate  council  must 
be  twenty-one  years  of  age ;  he  must  believe  in  the  existence  of  a 
Supreme  Being  as  the  Creator  and  Preserver  of  the  Universe*,  he 
must  be  a  native-born  citizen ;  a  Protestant,  born  of  Protestant 
parents,  reared  under  Protestant  influence,  and  not  united  in  marriage 
with  a  Roman  Catholic.  Ac.,  Ac.,  Ac. 


THE  KNOW  NOTHING  INDIFFERENT  TO  RELIGION.  447 


Article  III. 

Sec.  1.  The  object  of  this  organisation  shall  be  to  resist  the  in¬ 
sidious  policy  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  other  foreign  influence 
against  the  institutions  of  our  country,  by  placing  in  all  offices  in  the 
gift  of  the  people,  or  by  appointment,  none  but  native-born  Protestant 
citizens. 

The  Know  Nothing  oath — for  the  society  was  not  only 
secret,  but  bound  by  oaths — was  in  accordance  with  the 
spirit  of  the  foregoing.  It  was  comprehensive  as  well  as 
precise,  as  the  following  will  show  : — 

You  furthermore  promise  and  declare  that  you  will  not  vote  nor 
give  your  influence  for  any  man  for  any  office  in  the  gift  of  the  people 
unless  he  be  an  American-born  citizen,  in  favour  of  Americans  ruling 
America,  nor  if  he  be  a  Roman  Catholic. 

You  solemnly  and  sincerely  swear,  that  if  it  may  be  legally,  you 
will,  when  elected  to  any  office,  remove  all  foreigners  and  Roman 
Catholics  from  office ;  and  that  you  will  in  no  case  appoint  such  to 
office. 

Many  who  joined  this  organisation  had  not  the  excuse, 
the  bad  excuse,  of  fanaticism  for  their  conduct.  Lust  of 
power  was  their  ruling  passion  ;  to  trample  their  oppo¬ 
nents  under  foot,  and  secure  everything  to  themselves, 
their  animating  motive.  If  they  could  have  attained  their 
ends  through  the  Catholic  body,  they  would  have  employed 
every  art  of  wile  and  seduction  in  the  hope  of  securing 
their  co-operation  ;  but  as  they  deemed  it  more  to  their 
advantage  to  assail  and  blacken  the  Catholics,  thev  ac- 
cordinglv  did  assail  and  blacken  them  to  the  satisfaction  of 
their  dupes.  For  religion — any  form  of  religion — they 
did  not  care  a  cent ;  probably  they  regarded  it  as  so  much 
venerable  superstition  and  priestcraft — a  very  excellent 
thing  for  women  and  persons  of  weak  mind,  but  not  for 
men  ;  at  any  rate,  men  of  their  enlightenment.  Members 
of  no  congregation,  these  defenders  of  the  faith  never 
1  darkened  the  door  ’  of  a  church  or  meeting-house,  and 
save,  like  the  sailor  who  did  not  know  of  what  religion  ho 
was,  but  was  *  d — — d  sure  he  was  not  a  Papist,’  entertain- 


448 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


mg  a  blind  prejudice  against  Catholicity,  they  were  as  igno¬ 
rant  of  Christian  belief  as  any  savage  of  Central  Africa. 

Happily  for  the  cause  of  truth  and  common  sense,  there 
were  in  those  days  men  bold  enough  to  lash  hypocrisy  and 
humbug.  Henry  A.  Wise,  of  Virginia,  was  one  of  those 
bold  defenders  of  the  truth,  and  nnmaskers  of  fraud. 
His  speeches,  when  canvassing  his  State  on  the  Democratic 
ticket  for  the  office  of  Governor,  which  he  won  gallantly, 
are  full  of  the  most  stinging  rebukes  of  his  opponents, 
whom  he  defeated  in  argument  as  well  as  in  votes.  In 
his  remarkable  speech  at  Alexandria,  he  thus  hit  off 
the  religious  pretensions  of  many  of  this  class  of  Know 
Nothings,  who  affected  a  new-born  interest  in  the 
Bible  : — 

They  not  only  appeal  to  the  religious  element,  but  they  raise  a  cry 
about  the  Pope.  These  men.  many  ol‘  whom  are  neither  Episcopalians, 
Presbyterians,  Baptists,  Methodists,  Gongregationalists,  Lutherans,  or 
what  not — who  are  men  of  no  religion,  who  have  no  church,  who  do 
not  say  their  prayers,  who  do  not  read  their  Bible,  who  live  God- 
defying  lives  every  day  of  their  existence,  are  now  seen  with  faces  as 
long  as  their  dark-lanterns,  with  the  whites  of  their  eyes  turned  up 
in  holy  fear  lest  the  Bible  should  be  shut  up  by  the  Pope!  Men  who 
were  never  known  before,  on  the  face  of  God’s  earth,  to  show  any 
interest  in  religion,  to  take  any  part  with  Christ  or  His  Kingdom, 
who  were  the  devil’s  own,  belonging  to  the  devil’s  church,  are,  all  of 
a  sudden,  deeply  interested  for  the  word  of  God,  and  against  the 
Pope!  It  would  be  well  for  them  that  they  joined  a  church  which 
does  believe  in  the  Father,  and  in  the  Son,  and  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 

As  a  further  specimen  of  the  manner  of  this  famous 
Democrat,  another  passage  may  be  quoted  from  the  same 
speech.  He  now  desires  to  show  the  religion  of  the  party, 
as  defined  by  their  Constitution,  according  to  which  one 
of  the  qualifications  of  membership  is  mere  belief  in  the 
existence  of  ‘  a  Supreme  Being  ’  : — 

No  Christ  acknowledged!  No  Saviour  of  mankind!  No  Holy 
Ghost!  No  heavenly  Dove  of  Grace!  Go,  go,  you  Know  Nothings, 
to  the  cilv  of  Baltimore,  and  in  a  certain  street  there  yoi  will  seo 
tvv'-s  churches:  one  is  inscribed,  ‘O  Monos  Theos  ’ — Ho  the  one  God:’ 


DEMOCRATIC  ORATORS. 


449 


on  the  other  is  the  inscription,  ‘As  for  us,  we  preach  Christ  crucified 
—to  the  Jews  a  stumbling-block,  and  to  the  Greeks  foolishness.’ 
The  one  inscribed,  ‘  0  Monos  Theos  ’  is  the  Unitarian  church  5  the 
other,  inscribed,  ‘We  preach  Christ  crucified’  is  the  Catholic  church! 
Is  it  —  I  ask  of  Presbyterians,  Episcopalians,  Methodists,  and  Bap¬ 
tists — is  it,  I  ask,  for  any  orthodox  Trinitarian  Christian  Church  to 
join  an  association  that  is  inscribed,  like  the  Unitarian  church  at 
Baltimore,  ‘0  Monos  Theos’  — to  the  one  God?  Is  it  for  them  to 
join  or  countenance  an  association  that  so  lays~its  religion  as  to  catch 
men  like  Theodore  Parker  and  James  Freeman  Clarke?  I  put  it  to 
all  the  religious  societies — to  the  Presbyterians,  the  Episcopalians, 
the  Methodists,  and  the  Baptists — whether  they  mean  to  renounce  the 
divinity  of  Christ  and  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  when  they 
give  countenance  to  this  secret  society,  which  is  inscribed,  ‘  to  the 
one  God  ? ’ 

A  rebuke,  milder  in  tone,  and  beautiful  as  a  picture, 
may  be  taken  from  a  speech  delivered  at  Richmond  by 
Senator  R.  M.  T.  Hunter  during  the  Know  Nothing  cam¬ 
paign  : — 

But,  fellow-citizens,  I  went  a  little  too  far  w7hen  I  said  it  was  pro 
posed  to  proscribe  Catholics  for  all  offices  in  this  country.  There  are 
some  offices  which  the  sons  and  daughters  of  that  Church  are  still 
considered  competent  to  discharge.  I  mean  the  offices  of  Christian 
charity,  of  ministration  to  the  sick.  The  Sister  of  Charity  may  enter 
yonder  pest-house,  from  whose  dread  portals  the  bravest  and  strongest 
man  quails  and  shrinks ;  she  may  breathe  there  the  breath  of  the 
pestilence  that  walks  abroad  in  that  mansion  of  misery,  in  order  to 
minister  to  disease  where  it  is  most  loathsome,  and  to  relieve  suffering 
w7here  it  is  most  helpless.  There,  too,  the  tones  of  her  voice  may  be 
heard  mingling  with  the  last  accents  of  human  despair,  to  soothe  the 
fainting  soul,  as  she  points  through  the  gloom  of  the  dark  valley  of 
the  shadow  of  death  to  the  Cross  of  Christ,  which  stands  transfigured 
in  celestial  light,  to  bridge  the  way  from  earth  to  heaven.  And  when 
cholera  or  yellow  fever  invades  your  cities,  the  Catholic  Priest  may 
refuse  to  take  refuge  in  flight,  holding  the  place  of  the  true  Soldier  of 
the  Cross  to  be  by  the  sick  man’s  bed,  even  though  death  pervades 
the  air,  because  he  may  there  tender  the  ministrations  of  his  holy 
office  to  those  who  need  them  most. 

It  is  impossible  to  describe  the  frenzy  tliat  seemed  to 
possess  a  certain  'portion  of  the  American  people,  wliose 
strongest  passions  and  most  cherished  prejudices  were 


450 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


stimulated  by  appeals  from  the  press  and  the  platform, 
the  pulpit  and  the  street  tub.  It  seized  on  communities 
and  individuals  as  a  species  of  uncontrollable  insanity. 
Bitten  by  the  madness  of  the  moment,  acquaintance  turned 
savagely  on  acquaintance,  friend  upon  friend,  even  relative 
upon  relative.  The  kindly  feelings  which  it  took  years 
to  cement  were  rudely  torn  asunder  and  trampled  under 
foot.  The  Irish  Catholic  was  the  chief  object  of  attack. 
He  was  guilty  of  the  double  crime  of  being  an  Irish¬ 
man  and  a  Catholic  ;  and,  to  do  him  justice,  he  was  as 
ready  to  proclaim  his  faith  as  to  boast  of  his  nativity. 
His  enemies  were  many,  his  friends  few,  his  defenders  less. 
Boor  Bat  had  indeed  a  sad  time  of  it. 

That  the  religious  feeling  added  bitterness  to  the 
national  prejudice  was  made  manifest  by  the  unreasoning 
fury  of  those  who  combined  both  antipathies  in  their 
hostility^.  Either,  however,  was  quite  sufficient  to  swell 
the  outcry  and  deepen  the  hatred  against  its  unoffending 
objects.  Thus  the  religious  prejudice  was  so  bitter,  and 
so  violent,  that  it  prevailed  against  identity  of  nation¬ 
ality ;  and  the  national  prejudice  was  so  envenomed  that 
religious  sympathy  could  scarcely  restrain  its  exhibition, 
and  could  not  prevent  its  existence.  It  is  not  to  be  won¬ 
dered  at  that  the  genuine  Irish  Orangeman  sided  with  the 
persecutors  of  his  Catholic  countrymen ;  and  his  conduct 
on  many  occasions  was  a  sufficient  evidence  of  his  unnatu¬ 
ral  ferocity.  Many  Irish  Protestants,  not  Orangemen, 
gave  countenance  to  the  Know  Nothings,  though,  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  Know  Nothing  code,  none  but  native-born 
Protestants  were  held  to  be  eligible  for  any  office  or 
position  in  the  gift  of  the  people,  whether  by  election  or 
appointment.  The  shabby  conduct  of  this  class  of  Irish¬ 
men  was  the  result  either  of  sectarian  hate,  or  a  sense  of 
their  own  helplessness.  They  were  willing  to  persecute, 
or  they  hoped  to  propitiate ;  therefore,  they  too  joined 
in  the  crusade  against  their  countrymen  in  a  foreign 


EVEN  AT  TIIE  ALTAR  AND  IN  THE  PULPIT  4fU 

land.  But  there  were  many,  many  glorious  exceptions  to 
this  unworthy  conduct.  Irish  Protestants — men  of  strong 
religious  opinions,  who  opposed  Catholicity  on  principle — 
boldly  took  their  stand  by  the  oppressed,  and  resented  the 
policy  of  the  Know  Nothing  party,  as  if  it  were  directed 
exclusively  against  themselves.  Sympathising  with  their 
Catholic  fellow-countrymen,  they  met  tlie  assailants  gal¬ 
lantly,  and  rebuked  their  insane  folly  with  the  courage 
and  the  sense  of  men.  And  to  Irishmen  who  thus  acted 
Catholics  felt  bound  by  the  strongest  ties  of  gratitude 
and  respect.  It  was  a  time  to  test  the  true  merit  of  the 
man,  and  those  who  stood  it  triumphantly  were  deservedly 
honoured. 

Strange  as  it  may  appear,  this  anti-foreign  insanity 
caught  hold  of  the  sons  of  Irish  Catholics  ;  nay,  its  presence 
was  detected  at  the  altar  and  in  the  pulpit !  It  was  too 
base  an  infirmity  to  touch  a  generous  mind,  and  those 
who  were  affected  by  it  were  weak  and  vain  and  foolish, 
and  Americans  knew  them  to  be  such.  Where  one  is  born 
is  a  matter  of  accident.  If  this  be  so  under  ordinary 
circumstances,  it  is  eminently  so  with  the  children  of 
emigrants  ;  they  may  have  been  born  at  either  side  of  the 
Atlantic,  or  at  sea.  Absurd  instances  might  be  told  of 
the  sons  of  Irish  Catholic  emigrants  boasting  of  their 
American  birth,  and  expressing  their  sympathy  with  the 
Know  Nothing’s  hatred  of  foreigners.  The  humble,  honest 
parents,  redolent  of  the  soil,  endowed  with  a  brogue  rich 
and  mellifluous  enough  to  betray  their  origin,  were  they 
met  with  on  the  Steppes  of  Russia  or  in  the  desert  of 
Sahara  ;  and  the  unworthy  son  railing,  with  the  choicest 
accent  of  the  country  in  which  he  was  accidentally 
‘  dropped,’  against  the  land  of  his  fathers !  Such  spec¬ 
tacles  have  been  witnessed,  to  the  infinite  shame  of  the 
miserable  creatures  whose  vanity  was  too  much  for  a  weak 
head  and  a  poor  heart.  But  that  such  melancholy  spec¬ 
tacles  were  witnessed — were  possible — is  a  proof  of  the 


452 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


madness  that  seized  on  the  public  mind.  The  high-minded 
American  Catholic  took  his  stand  by  his  Irish  co-religionist, 
to  whose  fidelity,  liberality,  and  enthusiasm  he  justly 
attributed  much  of  the  marvellous  progress  which  the 
Church  had  made,  and  was  destined  to  make,  in  America. 
There  were,  among  Catholics,  a  few  exceptions  to  this 
generous  and  wise  policy ;  but,  on  the  whole,  the  religious 
sympathy  held  all  other  feelings  in  control,  or  effectually 
neutralised  the  poison  of  the  national  infection. 

Like  fever  or  cholera,  this  politico-religious  epidemic 
was  milder  or  more  virulent  in  one  place  than  in  another. 
Here  it  seized  hold  of  the  entire  community ;  there  it 
caught  but  a  few  individuals.  Here  it  signalised  its 
presence  by  riots  ;  there  by  bloodshed.  In  this  city  its 
congenial  result  was  a  burning,  or  a  cowardly  assassi¬ 
nation  ;  in  the  other  a  stand-up  fight,  in  which  the  Irish 
Catholic  had  to  encounter  enormous  odds  against  him. 
That  comparatively  little  mischief  was  done  to  ecclesias¬ 
tical  property  may  be  accounted  for  by  the  manner  with 
which,  as  by  one  impulse,  the  Catholics  rallied  round 
churches  and  convents  wherever  there  was  a  probability 
of  their  being  assailed.  In  New  York,  Know  Nothingism 
made  little  external  display  in  mischief  and  outrage ; 
which  fact  may  be  accounted  for  in  two  ways — the  one, 
that  the  Irish  population  had  by  this  time  grown  too 
powerful  to  be  wantonly  trifled  with ;  the  other,  that 
they  listened  in  an  obedient  sifirit  to  the  advice  of  the 
Archbishop,  wrho  wisely  believed  that  the  madness  would 
speedily  die  out  if  left  to  itself,  and  if  not  stimulated 
by  opposition  ;  that  it  was  something  similar  to  a  confla¬ 
gration  of  flax,  violent  for  the  moment,  but  without  any 
enduring  power.  The  Archbishop  wras  right  in  his  judg¬ 
ment.  It  was  a  frenzy  ,of  the  hour,  artfully  inflamed  by 
angry  sects,  and  skilfully  directed  by  unscrupulous  poli¬ 
ticians — men  who  would  stop  at  nothing  which  could  in 
any  way  further  the  objects  of  their  selfish  ambition.  Tlio 


ALMOST  INCREDIBLE. 


453 


fury  of  the  madness  did  die  out ;  but  tlie  feelings  to  which 
it  gave  rise,  or  evoked  into  new  life,  did  not  so  readily  pass 
away. 

I  might  possibly  be  accused  of  romancing  if  I  ventured 
to  describe  the  feeling  of  hostility  to  which  abuse  and 
misrepresentation  of  Catholics — Irish  Catholics  especially 
— gave  rise  in  the  Protestant  mind  of  America.  Horrible 
as  such  a  confession  may  sound  in  the  ears  of  rational 
men,  Protestants  of  good  repute  have  since  declared,  that 
at  one  time  they  believed  that  to  hill  a  Catholic  priest ,  or 
burn  down  a  Catholic  church,  would  be  doing  the  most 
acceptable  service  to  God !  I  had  heard  this  from  the 
most  reliable  sources  in  more  than  one  State ;  yet  it  was 
so  monstrous,  I  hesitated  to  give  it  credence.  But  while  I 
wavered  between  doubt  and  belief,  I  myself  heard  from 
die  lips  of  a  Catholic  convert — a  gentleman  of  worth  and 
good  social  position — the  same  confession,  in  almost  the 
very  same  words.  I  naturally  thought,  what  must  have 
been  the  sentiment  of  a  low  and  vulgar  mind,  when  such 
was  the  feeling  of  a  man  of  good  character  and  so-called 
liberal  education  ?  Until  I  heard  him,  I  did  not  thoroughly 
appreciate  the  moral  blindness  and  savage  frenzy  of  the 
genuine  Know  Nothing. 

An  alderman  of  a  certain  city  in  Tennessee  informed  a 
friend  of  mine  that  such  was  his  feeling  in  his  youth,  that 
‘  he  considered  it  doing  an  honour  to  the  Deity  to  take  his 
double-barrelled  shot-gun,  and  shoot  any  Catholic  he  might 
meet.’  He  does  not  hold  that  opinion  now ;  as  he  has 
been  a  zealous  Catholic  since  the  Christmas  of  1865,  when 
he  was  received  into  the  Church. 

In  another  city  of  Tennessee  an  Irishman,  named 
Hefferman,  was  shot  during  the  Know  Nothing  excite¬ 
ment  ;  but  the  three  men  who  were  the  cause  of  his  death 
joined  the  Church  which  they  hated  and  persecuted  in  his 
person. 

Indeed,  such  was  the  astounding  rampancy  of  assertion 


454 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


— such  the  omnivorous  swallow  of  public  credulity — that 
when  the  Catholic  Church  of  Nashville  was  in  the  course 
of  erection,  it  was  stated  in  the  newspaper  which  borrowed 
its  inspiration  from  the  present  Governor  Brownlow,  that 
the  vaults,  or  basement  of  the  building,  were  intended  for 
the  incarceration  of  Protestants  when  the  Pope  was  to 
come  over  and  take  the  country!  It  was  also  asserted, 
and  rather  widely  believed,  that  John  Mitchell,  who  had 
started  the  Citizen  newspaper,  was  an  agent  of  the  Jesuits  ; 
in  fact,  a  J esuit  in  disguise !  I  must  admit  that  the  cre¬ 
dulity  which  converted  basements  of  churches  into  dun¬ 
geons  ought  not  to  be  quoted  as  a  conclusive  proof  of  the 
insanity  of  Know  Nothingism  ;  for  I  have  heard  much  the 
same  thing  announced  in  a  solemn  place,  and  with  owl- 
like  gravity,  not  long  since,  and  not  in  America. 

The  honest  ‘No  Popery’  zealots  were  not  bad,  but  only 
misguided  men  ;  and  when  they  had  the  opportunity  of 
forming  a  light  judgment — of  emancipating  themselves 
from  the  leading-strings  in  which  interested  bigots  had 
held  their  minds — they  unhesitatingly  made  the  fullest  and 
most  generous  atonement. 

One  of  these  furious  but  honest  ‘No  Popery’  zealots  was 
going  on  a  voyage  of  some  days’  duration,  and  happening 
to  come  on  board  the  steamer  at  the  last  moment  before 
her  departure,  he  found  it  difficult  to  procure  accommo¬ 
dation.  ‘  Not  a  cabin,  sir — not  a  berth — all  taken,’  said 
the  clerk.  ‘  Can’t  you  put  me  anywdiere  ?  ’  asked  the 
gentleman  ;  ‘  go  I  must,  though  I  slept  on  the  floor.’  The 
clerk  glanced  over  his  books  to  see  how,  if  possible,  he 
could  accommodate  the  passenger,  who  awaited  the  result 
with  marked  anxiety.  ‘  I  have  discovered  a  berth,  sir— 
the  top  berth — in  one  cabin ;  the  lower  berth  is  occupied 
by  a  very  quiet  person,  who  wTon’t  give  you  much  trouble  ; 
he’s  a  Catholic  priest.’  ‘A  Catholic  priest! — did  you  say 
a  priest  ?  Why,  damn  him  !  I  would  not  stay  in  the  same 
room  with  him,’  exclaimed  the  passenger.  ‘Well,  sir, 


455 


THE  4  INFERNAL  MISCREANT. 

that’s  your  affair,  not  mine,’  replied  the  clerk  ;  ‘it  is  all 
I  can  do  for  you.’  ‘Look  you!’  said  the  passenger,  ‘if  one 
of  us  is  missed  at  the  end  of  the  voyage,  I  tell  you  it  won’t 
be  me  ;  for  if  that  fellow  dares  to  address  one  word  to  me, 
out  of  the  window  he  will  go — that  I  tell  you  now.’  The 
clerk  took  the  declaration  coolly,  not  being  unused  to  hear 
+  strong  language,  and  even  occasionally  witness  strange 
occurrences.  In  this  happy  frame  of  mind  the  passenger 
took  possession  of  his  upper  berth  at  night,  and  growled 
himself  to  sleep.  When  he  awoke  in  the  morning,  and 
remembered  where  he  was,  and  who  was  his  companion, 
he  had  the  curiosity  to  ascertain  what  the  ‘infernal  mis¬ 
creant  was  after.’  Peeping  from  his  vantage-ground,  he 
beheld  the  miscreant  on  his  knees,  apparently  absorbed  in 
prayer.  ‘  Damn  you !  there  you  are,’  was  the  benediction 
muttered  in  the  bed-clothes  of  the  upper  berth.  Its 
occupant  looked  again  and  again,  but  the  miscreant  was 
still  at  ‘his  humbug.’  At  length  the  miscreant  rose  from 
his  knees  and  left  the  cabin,  thus  affording  the  tenant  of 
the  upper  berth  an  opportunity  of  opening  the  window, 
and  getting  rid  of  the  odour  of  brimstone  which  ‘the 
devil’  had  left  after  him.  When  the  pair  happened  to 
meet  during  the  day,  the  lower  berth  courteously  bowed, 
and  said  something  civil,  to  which  the  upper  berth  re¬ 
sponded  with  something  that  bore  a  strange  resemblance 
to  an  imprecation.  ‘Is  the  fellow  really  serious,  or  is  it 
all  a  sham?’  thought  the  Know  Nothing,  as  he  witnessed 
the  same  piety,  the  same  wrapt  devotion,  the  second  morn¬ 
ing.  Stranger  still,  if  the  upper  berth  happened  to  visit 
the  cabin  during  the  day,  it  was  ten  chances  to  one  that 
he  discovered  the  ‘extraordinary  animal’  on  his  knees,  or 
deep  in  a  book  of  devotion.  For  days  the  priest  was  the 
object  of  the  most  jealous  watchfulness,  stimulated  by 
suspicion  and  dislike  ;  but  it  was  ever  the  same— the  same 
appearance  of  genuine  piety,  and  the  same  courtesy  of 
manner.  The  honest  gentleman  in  the  upper  berth  was 


450 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


staggered,  and  did  not  know  wliat  to  think  of  it.  ‘The 
fellow  might  possibly  be  a  fool,  but  he  certainly  was  not 
a  humbug/  This  was  a  great  concession,  a  gigantic  stride 
towards  liberality  of  sentiment.  At  length  he  spoke  with 
his  fellow-passenger,  and  found  him,  what  others  had  long 
before  found  him  to  be,  intelligent  and  well-informed. 
He  was  not  a  fool,  and  not  a  humbug  ;  then,  what  was  he? 
The  conviction  rapidly  grew  upon  the  tenant  of  the  upper 
berth,  that  his  companion  was  a  gentleman  and  a  Christian 
minister  ;  and,  ere  the  voyage  was  at  an  end,  the  heart  of 
the  furious  hater  of  Catholicity  was  changed  ;  more  than 
that,  ere  many  months  had  passed,  he  who  threatened  to 
put  the  priest  out  of  the  window  on  the  first  provocation, 
became  a  practical  Catholic,  and  there  is  not  at  this  moment 
in  America  a  stouter  defender  of  the  Church  than  he  is. 

As  a  striking  contrast  to  the  furious  and  unreasoning 
hatred  which  the  incident  just  narrated  represents,  one  of 
a  different  nature  may  be  told.  It  occurred  in  the  very 
height  of  the  Know  Nothing  excitement,  during  a  journey 
made  by  a  priest,  who  is  now  Bishop  of  a  Southern 
diocese. 

The  clergyman  found  himself  one  of  a  very  miscella¬ 
neous  company  in  a  public  stage.  Next  to  him,  as  he  sat 
in  the  front  part  of  the  vehicle,  was  a  gentleman  of  grave 
and  reserved  demeanoui  ;  while  the  other  passengers  ap¬ 
peared  to  be  of  the  ordinary  class  to  be  met  with  under 
such  circumstances,  who  freely  discussed  all  manner  of 
topics,  whether  of  a  personal  or  a  public  nature,  and 
whose  language  was  occasionally  sprinkled  with  profanity. 
The  company  had  proceeded  a  considerable  way  on  their 
journey,  when  the  gentleman  who  sat  next  the  future 
Bishop  enquired  of  him  if  he  were  not  a  ‘minister?’  ‘Why 
do  you  think  so?’  asked  the  priest.  ‘Well,  I  don’t  ex¬ 
actly  know ;  but  you  say  grace  before  meals,  and  you 
don’t  curse  and  swear.’  ‘I  am  a  Catholic  priest,’  said  the 
gentleman’s  neighbour.  *  I  am  glad  to  hear  it,’  said  the 


A  STRANGE  CONFESSION. 


457 


gentleman,  ‘  for  I  desire  to  ask  you  a  question  ;  and  believe 
me  I  do  not  think  of  asking  it  from  an  idle  motive,  as 
you  will  see.’  The  priest  assured  him  he  would  be  happy 
to  answer  any  questions  which  it  was  in  his  power  to 
answrer.  ‘  Then  I  wish  to  know  if  a  Catholic  clergyman 

o  %j 

would  hear  the  confession  of  a  Protestant,  if  the  Protes¬ 
tant  wanted  to  confess  ?  ’  ‘  Confession/  replied  the  priest, 

‘  has  two  benefits — good  advice  and  absolution.  Absolu¬ 
tion  can  only  be  given  to  a  Catholic,  but  good  advice  may 
be  given  to  a  Protestant :  and,  therefore,  for  that  purpose 
— the  giving  of  good  advice — a  priest  could  hear  the  con¬ 
fession  of  a  Protestant.5  ‘  I  told  you,  5  continued  the 
gentleman,  4 1  did  not  ask  the  question  from  an  idle 
motive.  I  am  a  Protestant,  and  I  wish  you  to  hear  my 
confession,  that  I  may  have  the  benefit  of  your  advice.5 
The  priest  consented,  using  the  simple  -words,  ‘Very  well, 
begin.5  At  this  moment  the  passengers,  wTlio  had  left  the 
stage,  were  walking  up  a  long  and  steep  hill :  and  while 
the  two  men  were  apparantly  sauntering  idly  up  that  hill, 
one  of  them  was  pouring  into  the  ear  of  the  other  a  story 
of  the  deepest  interest  to  his  peace  of  soul;  and  when 
the  passengers  again  resumed  their  places  in  the  stage, 
and  while  laugh,  and  jest,  and  profane  remark  were  heard 
on  every  side,  that  strange  confession  was  continued,  as  the 
two  men  leaned  back  in  the  vehicle,  and  the  one  listened 
to  the  voluntary  disclosures  of  the  other.  When  the  story 
had  been  told,  and  the  promised  advice  given,  the  gentle¬ 
man  said,  ‘Well,  now,  I  can’t  understand  it!  These  are 
matters  that  I  could  not  tell  to  my  brother — that  I  would 
not  for  the  world  my  wife  should  know — that  I  could  not 
confide  to  my  minister,  or  whisper  to  my  friends,  for  I 
would  die  rather  than  that  the  world  should  know  them ; 
and  here  I  have  freely  told  them  to  you,  a  stranger,  whom 
I  never  saw  before,  and  whom  I  may  never  see  again — 
and  why  do  I  tell  all  this  to  you?  Because  you  are  a 
Catholic  priest.  And  what  appears  to  me  so  strange  is  the 

20 


458 


TLIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


perfect  confidence  I  have  in  you ;  for  I  liave  not  the 
slightest  fear  you  will  ever  reveal  one  word  of  what  I  have 
told  you  to  mortal  ears.  This  is  what  I  cannot  under¬ 
stand.’ 

The  seeds  of  sectarian  hatred  were  scattered  broadcast 
over  the  land,  or  wafted,  like  the  thistle-down,  on  every 
breeze  ;  and  if  there  had  been  no  recent  crop  of  lusty  hate 
and  active  frenzy — if  there  have  been  no  burnings,  and 
wreckings,  and  outrages,  to  record  up  to  this  time,  not¬ 
withstanding  that  the  usual  period  for  the  outbreak  of 
such  semi-religious  semi-political  epidemics  has  come  and 
gone,  this  apparently  strange  phenomenon  may  be  ration¬ 
ally  accounted  for.  We  should  be  glad  to  attribute  it 
"wholly  to  the  good  sense  of  the  American  people,  who 
wre  should  desire  to  think  were  no  longer  to  be  made  the 
dupes  of  monstrous  falsehoods  and  deliberate  misrepresen¬ 
tations,  or  to  be  led  astray  by  theories  which  are  not  only 
grossly  absurd,  but  opposed  to  the  progress  of  the  United 
States.  Making,  however,  every  fair  allowance  for  the 
growing  good  sense  of  the  American  people,  we  eannot 
but  attribute  much  of  the  better  feeling  which*  now  exists 
to  an  event  that  may  be  well  described  as  one  of  the 
most  memorable  in  the  history  of  the  world — the  late 
Civil  War.  Not  only  has  that  war  exhibited  in  the  most 
signal  manner  the  enormous  value  of  the  foreign  element 
■ — its  strength,  its  courage,  and  its  fidelity ;  but  the 
Catholic  Church  has  had,  during  that  terrible  national 
ordeal,  an  unlooked-for  though  Providential  opportunity 
of  displaying  its  true  policy,  at  once  Christian  and  patri¬ 
otic,  and  of  convincing  even  the  most  prejudiced  of  its 
purity,  its  holiness,  and  its  charity. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 


The  Catholic  Church  and  the  Civil  War — The  True  Mission  of  the 
Church— The  Church  Speaks  for  Herself — the  ‘  Sisters  7  during 
the  War — The  Patients  could  not  make  them  out — The  Forgiven 
Insult — ‘  What  the  Sister  believes  I  believe  The  Chariot  of 
Mercy — ‘Am  I  to  Forgive  the  Yankees?7 — Prejudices  Conquered 
— ‘That’s  she!  I  owe  my  Life  to  her 7 — An  Emphatic  Rebuke — 
‘  We  want  to  become  Catholics.7 


mHE  Catholic  Church  of  America,  regarding  war  as  a  great 
calamity,  and  civil  war — of  State  against  State,  citizen 
against  citizen,  even  brother  against  brother — as  the  direst 
of  all  evils,  scrupulously  abstained  from  uttering  one  word 
that  could  have  a  tendency  to  inflame  or  exasperate  the 
passions  which  others  were  doing  their  utmost  to  excite  to 
uncontrollable  fury.  The  mission  of  the  Church  was  to 
proclaim  glad  tidings  of  peace  to  man,  not  to  preach  strife 
and  hatred  amongst  brethren.  Thus  those  who  visited 
the  Catholic  churches  of  the  United  States  from  the  Spring 
of  1861  to  the  Autumn  of  that  year,  would  never  have 
supposed,  from  anything  heard  within  their  walls,  that  the 
trumpet  had  sounded  through  the  land ;  that  armies  were 
gathering,  and  camps  were  forming ;  that  foundries  were 
at  full  blast,  forming  implements  of  death  ;  that  artificers 
were  hard  at  work,  fashioning  the  rifle  and  the  revolver, 
sharpening  the  sword,  and  pointing  the  bayonet  ;  that 
dockyards  rang  with  the  clang  of  hammers,  and  resounded 
with  the  cries  of  myriads  of  busy  men — that  America  was 
in  the  first  throes  of  desperate  strife.  Nor,  as  time  went 
on,  and  all  the  pent-up  jDassions  of  years  were  unloosed, 
and  a  deadly  war  progressed  with  varying  fortunes,  and 


4 CO  THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 

fury  possessed  the  heart  of  a  mighty  people,  could  the 
stranger  who  entered  a  Catholic  temple  scarcely  believe  in 
the  existence  of  the  storm  that  raged  without ;  the  only 
indications  of  the  tremendous  conflict  being  the  many 
dark  robes,  the  sad  livery  of  woe,  worn  by  women  and 
children — the  mothers,  wives,  or  orphans  of  those  who  had 
fallen  in  battle ;  for,  save  in  the  greater  solemnity  of  the 
priest,  as  he  raised  the  hearts  of  his  congregation  to  the 
throne  of  God,  there  to  sue  for  grace  and  pardon,  there  was 
nothing  to  imply  the  existence  of  a  struggle  whose  gigantic 
proportions  filled  the  world  with  amazement.  The  Catholic 
Church  was  content  to  preach  ‘Christ  crucified’  to  its  own 
followers,  as  to  all  who  came  to  listen.  It  regarded  its 
pulpit  as  a  sacred  chair,  from  which  it  was  to  teach  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth,  how  man  could  best  fulfil  his 
duties  to  his  Creator,  his  country,  and  his  neighbour.  It 
deemed — and  the  judgment  of  the  wise  and  good  will  say 
it  deemed  rightly — that  if  the  minister  of  religion  became 
a  firebrand,  instead  of  a  preacher  of  peace,  he  misunder¬ 
stood  his  duty,  and  prostituted  the  sanctity  of  his  office  : 
it  held,  that  it  was  a  gross  desecration  of  a  temple  erected 
to  the  worship  of  the  Deity,  to  suffer  it  to  resound  with 
the  language  of  unholy  strife — with  eloquent  incentives 
to  massacre  and  desolation.  Others  might  act  as  they 
pleased  ;  they  might  turn  their  churches  into  political  as¬ 
semblies,  and  their  pulpits  into  party  platforms — they  might 
rage,  and  storm,  and  fulminate — they  might  invoke  the 
fiercest  passions  of  the  human  breast,  and  appeal  to  the 
lowest  instincts  of  man’s  nature — they  might  stimulate 
their  hearers  to  a  wider  destruction  of  life  and  property, 
to  sadder  and  more  terrible  havoc  ;  others  might  do  this, 
as  others  did — but  the  Catholic  Church  of  America  was 
neither  bewildered  by  the  noise  and  smoke  of  battle,  no? 
made  savage  by  the  scent  of  blood  :  she  simply  fulfilled  her 
mission,  the  same  as  that  of  the  Apostles — she  preached 
Ihe  Word  of  God  in  lovingness  and  peace. 


THE  CHURCH  SPEAKS  FOR  HERSELF 


461 


Tliis  was  the  language  and  spirit  of  the  Church,  as  pro¬ 
claimed  in  the  Pastoral  Letter  emanating  from  the  Catholic 
Bishops  assembled  in  the  Third  Provincial  Council  of 
Cincinnati,  in  May  1861  : — - 

It  is  not  for  us  to  enquire  into  the  causes  which  have  led  to  the 
present  unhappy  condition  of  affairs.  This  enquiry  belongs  more 
appropriately  to  those  who  are  directly  concerned  in  managing  tiie 
affairs  of  the  republic.  The  spirit  of  the  Catholic  Church  is  emi¬ 
nently  conservative,  and  while  her  ministers  rightfully  feel  a  deep 
and  abiding  interest  in  all  that  concerns  the  welfare  of  the  country, 
they  do  not  think  it  their  province  to  enter  into  the  political  arena. 
They  leave  to  the  ministers  of  the  human  sects  to  discuss  from 
their  pulpits  and  in  their  ecclesiastical  assemblies  the  exciting  ques¬ 
tions  which  lie  at  the  basis  of  most  of  our  present  and  prospective 
difficulties.  Thus,  while  many  of  the  sects  have  divided  into  hostile 
parties  on  an  exciting  political  issue,  the  Catholic  Church  has  care¬ 
fully  preserved  her  unity  of  spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace,  literally 
kftbwing  no  North,  no  South,  no  East,  no  West.  Wherever  Christ 
is  to  be  preached  and  sinners  to  be  saved,  there  she  is  found  with 
ministrations  of  truth  and  mercy.  She  leaves  the  exciting  question 
referred  to  previously  where  the  inspired  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  left 
it,  contenting  herself,  like  him,  with  inculcating  on  all  classes  and 
grades  of  society  the  faithful  discharge  of  the  duties  belonging  to 
their  respective  states  of  life,  knowing  that  they  will  all  have  to 
render  a  strict  account  to  God  for  the  deeds  done  in  the  flesh,  that 
this  life  is  short  and  transitory,  and  that  eternity  never  ends.  Beyond 
this  point  her  ministers  do  not  consider  it  their  province  to  go, 
knowing  well  that  they  are  the  ministers  of  God.  who  is  not  a  God 
of  dissension,  but  of  peace  and  love. 

Had  this  wise  and  considerate  line  of  conduct  been  generally  fol¬ 
lowed  throughout  the  country,  we  are  convinced  that  much  of  the 
embittered  feeling  which  now  unfortunately  exists,  would  have  been 
obviated,  and  the  brotherly  love,  the  genuine  offspring  of  true 
Christianity,  instead  of  the  fratricidal  hatred  which  is  opposed  to  its 
essential  genius  and  spirit,  would  now  bless  our  country,  and  bind 
together  all  our  fellow  citizens  in  one  harmonious  brotherhood.  May 
God.  in  his  abounding  mercy,  grant  that  the  sectarianism  which  divides 
and  sows  dissensions,  may  gradually  yield  to  the  Catholic  spirit  which 
breathes  unity  and  love  ! 

The  startling  contrast  which  the  Catholic  Church  thus 
presented  to  most,  indeed  nearly  all,  of  the  other  churches 


462 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


during1  this  period  of  national  tribulation,  was  not  without 
its  influence  on  the  public  mind  of  America.  It  made 
men  think  and  reflect,  and  in  numberless  instances  con¬ 
viction  came  with  thought  and  reflection.  The  fervid  and 
furious  ‘  sermons 5  that  were  listened  to  with  flashing  eyes 
and  quickened  pulses  by  the  majority  of  those  to  whom 
they  were  addressed,  excited  the  sorrow  or  disgust  of  not 
a  few.  A  Protestant  gentleman,  speaking  to  a  Catholic 
friend  in  New  York,  thus  referred  to  the  prevailing  topics 
which  inspired  the  eloquence  of  his  Boanerges  : — 

4  My  wife  urged  me  yesterday  to  accompany  her  to  our 
church.  I  refused  :  she  was  rather  angry.  “  Well,  my 
dear,”  I  said,  “  you  may  go  if  you  please  ;  the  pew  is  there 
for  you — I  pay  for  it.  But  I  shan’t  go.  Whenever  I 
have  gone  I  have  never  heard  but  three  sermons  at  the 
most  —  Popery,  Slavery,  and  War  —  War,  Slavery,  ai*l 
Popery !  These  may  satisfy  you — they  don’t  me.  When 
I  go  to  church  I  wish  to  be  made  better,  not  worse.  Now 
I  think  a  little  of  the  Gospel,  that  tells  us  something  of 
peace  and  charity,  would  do  me  good — your  War,  and 
Slavery,  and  Popery  don’t.  I  repeat,  my  dear,  you  may 
go  if  you  please  ;  but  I’m - blessed  if  I  do.”  r 

If  the  Catholic  Church  could  do  nothing  to  prevent  war, 
she  could  at  least  do  much  to  mitigate  its  horrors ;  and 
accordingly  she  commissioned  her  noblest  representatives 
— her  consecrated  daughters — to  minister  in  the  public 
hospitals,  in  the  camp,  and  in  the  prisons — wherever 
wretchedness,  and  misery,  and  suffering  appealed  most 
powerfully  to  their  Christian  duty  and  womanly  com¬ 
passion. 

The  events  of  the  war  brought  out  in  the  most  con¬ 
spicuous  manner,  the  merits  and  usefulness  of  the  Belig- 
ious  Orders,  especially  those  of  Charity  and  Mercy,  and  the 
Holy  Cross,  and,  spite  of  prejudice  and  bigotry,  made 
the  name  of  ‘Sister’  honoured  throughout  the  land.  Pre¬ 
judice  and  bigotry  are  powerful  with  individuals  and  com- 


‘THE  SISTERS’  DURING  THE  WAR.  40 3 

/nullities,  powerful,  too,  in  proportion  to  the  ignorance 
which  shrouds  the  mind  of  man.  Still,  these  are  but 
relatively  strong,  and  must  yield  before  a  force  superior  to 
tlieir’s — truth.  And  as  month  followed  month,  and  year 
succeeded  to  year,  the  priceless  value  of  services  having 
their  motive  in  religion  and  their  reward  in  the  conscious¬ 
ness  of  doing  good,  wrere  more  thoroughly  appreciated  by  a 
generous  people.  At  their  presence  in  an  hospital,  whether 
long  established  or  hastily  improvised,  order,  good  manage¬ 
ment,  and  economy,  took  the  place  of  confusion,  lax  ad¬ 
ministration,  and  reckless  expenditure,  if  not  worse.  Ob¬ 
stacles,  in  many  instances  of  a  serious  nature,  were  placed 
deliberately  in  their  path ;  but,  with  tact,  and  temper, 
and  firmness,  these  wTere  encountered  by  women  who 
had  no  vanity  to  wound,  no  malice  to  inflame,  and  whose 
only  object  was  to  relieve  the  sufferings  of  the  sick  and 
wounded  in  the  most  efficacious  manner.  It  is  there¬ 
fore  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  difficulties  and  obstacles, 
however  apparently  formidable  at  first,  vanished  before 
the  resistless  influence  of  their  sincerity  and  their  goodness, 
and  the  quite  as  conclusive  evidence  of  their  usefulness. 
But  the  greater  their  success,  the  greater  the  strain  on 
the  resources  of  the  principal  Orders.  Not  only  did  death 
and  sickness  thin  their  ranks,  but  the  war,  by  adding 
fearfully  to  the  number  of  helpless  orphans,  added  like¬ 
wise  to  their  cares  and  responsibilities.  What  with  cease¬ 
less  duty  in  the  hospitals,  teaching  in  their  schools,  visit¬ 
ing  the  sick,  providing  for  the  fatherless  whom  every 
great  battle  flung  upon  their  protection,  administering 
the  affairs  of  institutions  perilled  by  the  universal  dis¬ 
turbance,  bringing  relief  and  consolation  to  the  prisoner 
in  the  crowded  building,  or  wretched  camp  to  which  the 
chance  of  war  consigned  the  soldier  on  either  side — the 
Sisters  were  tried  to  the  very  uttermost.  Nothing  but  the 
spirit  of  religion,  together  with  their  womanly  compassion 
for  the  sick  and  the  suffering,  and  their  interest  in  the  brave 


4C4 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


fellows  who,  docile  children  in  their  hands,  followed  them 
with  wistful  eyes  as,  angels  of  light  and  mercy,  they 
brought  balm  to  the  heart  of  the  wounded, — nothing  short 
of  the  sublime  motives  by  which  these  ladies  were  animated 
could  have  sustained  them  throughout  four  long  years  of 
ceaseless  toil  and  never-ending  anxiety. 

You  may  have  seen  the  feeblest  bird  exhibit  unlooked- 
for  courage  when  danger  threatened  its  young.  Maternal 
instinct  renders  it  almost  unrecognisable — the  glittering 
eye,  the  ruffled  plumage,  and  the  bold  attitude,  make  it 
so  unlike  the  ordinary  timid  creature.  So,  gentle,  shrink¬ 
ing,  timid  as  the  Sister  might  be  under  ordinary  circum¬ 
stances,  let  the  least  wrong  be  done  to  her  patients — let 
even  incompetency  or  neglect  be  manifested  in  an  hospital 
under  her  charge  ;  and  that  gentle-mannered,  soft-spoken 
Sister  would  come  out  instantly  in  a  new  character.  Many 
an  official — proud,  or  insolent,  or  bigoted,  or  incompetent, 
or  corrupt — has  had  to  bend  before  the  quiet  determina¬ 
tion  expressed  in  the  voice  and  manner  of  the  Sister 
inspired  by  a  sense  of  duty  springing  alike  from  humanity 
and  religion.  Throughout  the  country,  in  almost  every 
State  of  the  Union,  are  now  to  be  seen  Sisters — calm, 
gentle,  soft-voiced  women — of  whose  sturdy  energy  and 
resolute  courage  in  defence  of  their  sick  charge,  or  in 
resistance  of  abuses,  numerous  instances  are  narrated ; 
never  by  themselves,  but  by  those  who,  having  witnessed 
them,  cherish  them  in  their  memory.  No  officer,  no 
official,  ventured  to  treat  the  Sister  with  disrespect,  once 
her  value  was  known  ;  and  it  was  soon  made  known.  The 
impediments  and  embarrassments  which  were  occasionally 
thrown  in  her  way  were  borne  with  as  far  as  they  possibly 
might  be  ;  but  when  the  time  for  action  arrived,  even  the 
youngest  Sister  was  generally  equal  to  the  emergency.  As 
the  war  progressed,  so  did  the  influence  of  the  Sisters,  until 
at  length  there  wTas  scarcely  a  corner  of  the  country  into 
which  a  knowledge  of  their  services  did  not  penetrate. 


THE  PATIENTS  COULD  NOT  MAKE  THEM  OUT. 


4G5 


and  there  were  but  few  homes  in  which  their  name  was  not 
mentioned  with  respect. 

At  first,  the  soldiers  did  not  know  what  to  make  of 
them,  and  could  not  comprehend  who  they  were,  or  what 
was  their  object.  And  when  the  patient  learned  that  the 
Sister  with  the  strange  dress  belonged  to  the  Catholic 
Church — that  church  of  which  so  many  vile  stories  had 
been  told  him  from  his  childhood — a  look  of  dread,  even 
horror,  might  be  observed  in  his  eyes,  as  he  instinctively 
recoiled  from  her  proffered  services.  This  aversion  rarely 
continued  long  ;  it  melted  away  like  ice  before  the  sun  ; 
but,  unlike  the  ice,  which  the  winter  again  brings  round, 
this  feeling  never  returned  to  the  heart  of  the  brave  man 
whom  the  fortune  of  war  placed  under  the  care  of  the 
Sister.  Once  gone,  it  was  gone  for  ever.  How  the  pre¬ 
judice,  deep-seated  and  ingrained,  yielded  to  the  influence 
of  the  Sisters,  may  be  best  exemplified  by  a  few  incidents, 
taken  at  random  from  a  vast  number  of  a  similar  nature 
gathered  in  many  parts  of  the  country. 

Seven  Sisters  of  Mercy,  belonging  to  the  Houston  Street 
Convent  in  Hew  York,  were  sent  to  an  hospital  attached 
to  a  Federal  corps.  When  they  first  entered  the  wards, 
which  were  crowded  with  sick  and  wounded,  the  soldiers 
regarded  them  with  amazement.  One  of  the  Sisters,  a 
genial  Irishwoman,  referring  to  this  her  first  visit  to  the 
hospital,  told  with  much  humour  how  the  bewildered 
patients  took  the  Sisters  for  seven  widows,  who  were 
looking  for  the  dead  bodies  of  their  husbands ! 

Among  the  patients,  there  was  one  mere  lad — indeed 
almost  a  child,  scarce  fit  to  leave  his  mother’s  guardian¬ 
ship — and  he  lay  with  h-is  face  on  the  pillow,  as  an  hospital 
attendant,  not  eminent  for  humanity,  carelessly  sponged  a 
fearful  wound  in  the  back  of  the  poor  youth’s  neck.  The 
hair  had  been  matted  with  the  clotted  blood,  and  the  rude 
touch  of  the  heartless  assistant  was  agony  to  the  miserable 
patient.  ‘  Let  me  do  it  *  said  the  Sister,  taking  the  in- 


166 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


sfcrument  of  torture  from  the  unsympathising  hand  ;  and 
then,  with  tepid  water,  and  soft  sponge,  and  woman’s 
delicacy  of  touch,  the  hideous  sore  was  tenderly  cleansed. 
‘Oh,  who  is  that? — who  are  you? — you  must  be  an 
angel !  ’  cried  the  relieved  youth.  The  hair  was  gently 
separated  from  the  angry  flesh,  so  that  the  grateful  patient 
could  turn  his  head  and  glance  at  the  ‘  angel ;  ’  but  no 
sooner  did  he.  cast  one  rapid  look  at  the  strange  garb 
and  the  novel  head-dress  of  the  Sister,  than  he  shrieked 
with  terror,  and  buried  his  face  in  the  pillow.  ‘.Do  not 
fear  me,’  said  a  voice  full  of  sympathy;  ‘I  am  only 
anxious  to  relieve  your  sufferings.’  The  work  of  mercy 
was  proceeded  with,  to  the  ineffable  comfort  of  the 
wounded  boy,  who  murmured — ‘  Well,  no  matter  what 
you  are,  you’re  an  angel  anyhow.’ 

At  times  there  were  as  many  as  eighty  Sisters  in  or  near 
Richmond,  in  active  attendance  in  the  hospitals,  giving  their 
services  alike  to  the  wounded  soldiers  of  both  armies.  In 
one  of  the  Richmond  hospitals  the  following  took  place  : 

A  sick  man,  looking  steadily  from  his  pillow  at  the 
Sister,  who  was  busy  in  her  attentions  to  him,  abruptly 
asked — 

‘Who  pays  you? — what  do  you  get  a  month?  ’ 

‘  We  are  not  paid  ;  we  do  not  receive  salaries,’  replied 
the  Sister. 

‘Then  why  do  you  work  as  you  do? — you  never  cease 
working.’ 

‘  What  we  do,  we  do  for  the  love  of  God — to  Him  we  only 
look  for  our  reward — we  hope  He  will  pay  us  hereafter.’ 

The  wounded  man  seemed  as  if  he  could  not  entirely 
comprehend  a  devotion  so  repugnant  to  the  spirit  of  the 
Almighty  Dollar ;  but  he  made  no  further  remark  at  the 
time.  When  he  became  more  confidential  with  the  Sister, 
the  following  dialogue  was  held — 

Patient.  Well,  Sister,  there  is  only  one  class  of  people 
in  this  world  that  I  hate. 


THE  FORGIVEN  INSULT. 


467 


Sister.  And  wlio  may  those  be? 

Patient.  The  Catholics. 

Sister.  The  Catholics !  Why  do  you  hate  them  ? 

Patient.  Well,  they  are  a  detestable  people. 

Sister.  Did  you  ever  meet  ‘with  a  Catholic  that  you  say 
that  of  them  ? 

Patient.  No,  never  ;  I  never  came  near  one. 

Sister.  Then  how  can  you  think  so  hardly  of  persons  of 
whom  you  don’t  know  anything  ? 

Patient.  All  my  neighbours  tell  me  they  are  a  vile  and 
wicked  people. 

Sister.  Now,  what  would  you  think  and  say  of  me,  if  I 
were  one  of  those  Catholics  ? 

Patient,  (indignantly).  Oh,  Sister!  you! — you  who  are 
so  good !  Impossible  ! 

Sister.  Then,  indeed,  I  am  a  Catholic — a  Roman  Cath¬ 
olic. 

The  poor  fellow,  whose  nerves  were  not  yet  well  strung, 
rose  in  his  bed  as  with  a  bound,  looked  the  picture  of 
amazement  and  sorrow,  and  burst  into  tears.  He  had  so 
lately  written  to  his  wife  in  his  distant  home,  telling  her 
of  the  unceasing  kindness  of  the  Sister  to  him,  and  attri¬ 
buting  his  recovery  to  her  care  ;  and  he  was  now  to  dis¬ 
close  the  awful  fact  that  the  Sister  was,  after  all,  one  of 
those  wicked  people  of  whom  he  and  she  had  heard  such 
evil  things.  This  was,  at  first,  a  great  trouble  to  his 
mind  ;  but  the  trouble  did  not'  last  long,  for  that  man  left 
the  hospital  a  Catholic,  of  his  own  free  choice,  and  could 
then  understand,  not  only  that  his  neighbours  had  been, 
like  himself,  the  dupes  of  monstrous  fables,  but  how  the 
Sister  could  work  and  toil  for  no  earthly  reward. 

A  Sister  was  passing  through  the  streets  of  Boston  with 
downcast  eyes  and  noiseless  step,  reciting  a  prayer  or 
thinking  of  the  poor  family  she  was  about  to  visit.  As 
she  was  passing  on  her  errand  of  mercy,  she  was  suddenly 
addressed,  in  language  that  made  her  pale  cheek  fijusli,  by 


4C8 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


a  young  man  of  remarkable  appearance  and  free  swagger¬ 
ing  gait.  The  Sister,  though  grievously  outraged,  uttered 
no  word,  but  raised  her  eyes,  and  looked  at  the  offender 
with  calm  steady  gaze,  in  which  volumes  of  rebuke  were 
expressed.  Time  passed  on  ;  the  war  intervened  ;  and 
when  next  they  met  it  was  in  a  ward  of  a  military  hospital 
in  Missouri.  The  once  powerful  man  was  now  feeble  as 
an  infant,  and  had  not  many  days  to  live.  The  Sister, 
seeing  his  condition,  asked  him  if  he  belonged  to  any 
church ;  and  on  his  replying  in  the  negative,  she  asked  if 
he  would  be  a  Catholic.  ‘  No — not  a  Catholic — I  alwavs 
hated  Catholics,’  he  replied.  ‘  At  any  rate,  you  should  ask 
the  pardon  of  God  for  your  sins,  and  be  sorry  for  what¬ 
ever  evil  you  have  done  in  your  life,’  urged  the  Sister. 

‘  I  have  committed  many  sins  in  my  life,  Sister,  and  I 
am  sorry  for  them,  and  hope  to  be  forgiven  ;  but  there  is 
one  thing  that  weighs  heavy  on  my  mind  at  this  moment 
— I  once  insulted  a  Sister  in  Boston,  and  her  glance 
haunted  me  ever  after :  it  made  me  ashamed  of  fiiyself. 
I  knew  nothing  then  of  what  Sisters  were,  for  I  had  not 
known  you.  But  now  that  I  know  how  good  and  disin¬ 
terested  you  are,  and  how  mean  I  was,  I  am  disgusted 
with  myself.  Oh,  if  that  Sister  were  here,  I  could  go  down 
on  my  knees  to  her  and  ask  her  pardon  !  ’ 

‘You  have  asked  it,  and  received  it,’  said  the  Sister, 
looking  full  at  him,  but  with  a  sweet  expression  of  tender¬ 
ness  and  compassion. 

‘What!  Are  you  the  sister  I  met  in  Boston?  Oh,  yes! 
you  are — I  know  you  now.  And  how  could  you  have 
attended  on  me  with  greater  care  than  on  any  of  the  other 
patients  ? — I  who  insulted  you  so  !  ’ 

‘I  did  it  for  our  Lord’s  sake,  because  He  loved  His  ene¬ 
mies,  and  blessed  those  who  persecuted  Him.  I  knew  you 
from  the  first  moment  you  were  brought  into  the  hospital, 
and  I  have  prayed  unceasingly  for  your  conversion,’  said 
the  Sister. 


‘WHAT  THE  SISTER  BELIEVES  I  BELIEVE.’ 


4J9 


*  Send  for  the  priest !  ’  exclaimed  the  dying  soldier  ;  *  the 
religion  that  teaches  such  charity  must  be  from  God.’ 

And  he  did  die  in  the  Sister’s  faith,  holding  in  his 
failing  grasp  the  emblem  of  man’s  redemption,  and  mur¬ 
muring  prayers  taught  him  by  her  whose  glance  of  mild 
rebuke  had  long  haunted  him  like  a  remorse  through  every 
scene  of  revelry  or  of  peril. 

‘  Do  you  believe  that,  Sister  ?  If  you  believe  it,  I  be¬ 
lieve  it,  too.’  There  was  scarcely  an  hospital  at  either  side 
of  the  line,  North  or  South,  of  which  the  Sisters  had  the 
care,  in  which  these  apparently  strange  but  most  significant 
words  were  not  uttered  by  the  sick  and  the  dying.  Many 
of  the  poor  fellows  had  not  the  vaguest  notion  of  religious 
teaching,  never  having  troubled  themselves  with  such 
matters  in  the  days  of  their  youth  and  health  ;  and  when 
the  experienced  eye  of  the  Sister  discerned  the  approach 
of  death,  the  patient  would  be  asked  if  he  wished  to  see  a 
clergyman.  Frequently  the  answer  would  be  that  he  did 
not  belong  to  any  religion.  ‘Then  will  you  become  a 
Catholic,’  would  follow  as  a  fair  question  to  one  who  pro¬ 
claimed  himself  not  to  belong  to  any  church,  or  to  be¬ 
lieve  in  any  form  of  Christianity.  From  hundreds,  nay 
thousands  of  sick  beds,  this  reply  was  made  to  that  ques¬ 
tion  :  ‘  I  don’t  know  much  about  religion,  but  I  wish  to 

die  in  the  religion  of  the  Sisters.’  When  asked,  for 
example,  if  he  believed  in  the  Trinity,  the  dying  man 
would  turn  to  the  Sisters  who  stood  by  his  bedside,  and 
enquire, — ‘  Do  you,  Sister  ?  ’  and  on  the  Sister  answering, 

‘  Yes,  I  do,’  he  would  say,  ‘  Then  I  do — whatever  the 
Sister  believes  in,  I  do.’  And  thus  he  would  make  his 
confession  of  faith. 

A  soldier  from  Georgia,  who  was  tended  by  the  Sisters 
in  an  hospital  in  St.  Louis,  declared  that  ‘  he  had  never 
heard  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  knew  nothing  about  him.’  He 
was  asked  if  he  would  become  a  Catholic.  ‘  I  have  heard 
of  them,’  he  said  ;  ‘  I  would  not  be  one  of  them  at  'all-— 


470 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


they  are  wicked  people.  But  I’ll  be  the  same  as  you. 
Sister  ;  whatever  that  is,  it  must  be  good.’ 

At  the  battle  of  Gettysburg,  a  number  of  Sisters  joined 
the  camp  hospital,  bringing  with  them  a  considerable 
quantity  of  provisions  and  comforts,  procured  at  their  own 
cost.  They  even  went  on  the  field,  bravely  conquering 
the  natural  reluctance  of  delicate  women  to  witness  scenes 
of  horror  such  as  every  inch  of  a  hard-fought  battle-field 
discloses.  What  services  these  tender  women — some  of 
them  young  creatures  not  long  professed — rendered  to  the 
mangled  victims  of  that  furious  contest,  it  were  impos¬ 
sible  to  tell.  But  so  signal  was  the  devotion  which  they 
displayed  in  an  emergency  of  so 'pressing  a  nature,  that 
they  elicited  from  a  preacher  the  following  strange  tribute, 
published  in  the  newspapers : — c  Although  I  hate  their 
religion,  and  despise  their  sectarianism,  I  must  do  justice 
to  the  self-sacrificing  •  devotion  of  those  pale  unmated 
flowers,  that  never  ripen  with  fruit.’  One,  not  a  preacher, 
might  imagine  that  the  blessings  and  prayers — the  purest 
offerings  of  the  heart — that  sprang  up  in  their  path  wher¬ 
ever  they  turned,  were  fruit  the  most  acceptable  to  these 
‘  pale  unmated  flowers ;  ’  but  the  idea  would  appear  fan¬ 
tastical  and  far-fetched  to  the  material  nature  of  their 
enlightened  panegyrist. 

It  really  matters  little,  when  referring  to  the  services 
of  the  Sisters  during  the  war,  which  army,  which  State, 
or  which  hospital  is  mentioned  as  the  scene  of  their 
labours.  Their  charity,  like  their  Order,  was  universal ; 
and  whether  they  ministered  to  the  sick  in  a  Union  or 
Confederate  army,  or  in  a  Northern  or  Southern  State,  it 
was  the  same  in  motive  and  in  object.  Next  to  the  sick 
in  the  hospital,  the  prisoner  was  the  dearest  object  of  their 
solicitude. 

The  Sisters  in  Charleston  did  glorious  service  during  the 
war — to  the  sick,  the  dying,  the  prisoner,  and  the  needy. 
A  t  certain  times  immense  numbers  of  prisoners  were  camped 


THE  CHARIOT  OF  MERCY". 


471 


outside  the  city.  They  were  in  a  miserable  state.  Charles¬ 
ton,  partly  consumed  by  the  tremendous  fire  of  1861,  by 
which  an  enormous  amount  of  property  was  destroyed, 
and  further  assailed  by  a  bombardment  scarcely  paralleled 
in  modern  history,  could  not  afford  much  accommodation 
to  the  captured  of  the  enemy.  Penned  up  together,  and 
scantily  fed,  the  condition  of  the  prisoner  was  far  from 
enviable ;  it  was  indeed  deplorable.  To  these  poor  fellows 
the  Sisters  were  in  reality  what  they  were  styled — ‘  angels 
of  mercy.’  Presented  with  a  universal  pass  by  General 
Beauregard,  the  Sisters  went  everywhere  unquestioned,  as 
if  they  were  so  many  staff  officers.  The  General  had 
likewise  presented  them  with  an  ambulance  and  a  pair  of 
splendid  'white  horses,  remarkable  for  their  beauty,  and, 
on  account  of  their  colour,  conspicuous  at  a  considerable 
distance.  Many  a  time  has  the  sight  of  these  horses 
brought  gladness  to  the  heart  of  the  prisoner,  as  he  beheld 
them  turning  the  corner  of  the  highway  leading  to  the 
camp.  When  the  white  specks  were  seen  some  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile  on  the  road,  the  word  was  given,  £  The 
Sisters  are  coming !  ’  As  that  announcement  was  made, 
the  drooping  spirit  revived,  and  the  fainting  heart  was 
stirred  with  hope ;  for  with  the  Sisters  came  food,  com¬ 
forts,  presents,  perhaps  a  letter,  or  at  least  a  message — 
and  always  sweet  smiles,  gentle  words,  sympathy  and  con¬ 
solation.  The  ambulance,  drawn  by  the  gallant  white 
steeds,  was  usually  filled  with  hundreds  of  white  loaves — 
in  fact,  with  everything  which  active  charity  could  pro¬ 
cure  or  generosity  contribute.  The  rations  given  to  the 
prisoners  were  about  as  good  as  the  Confederate  soldiers 
had  for  them3elves;  but  to  the  depressed,  pent-up  pri¬ 
soner,  these  were  coarse  and  scanty  indeed.  ‘  Sister ! 
Sister  of  Charity !  Sister  of  Mercy ! — put  something  in 
this  hand!’ — ‘Sister,  Sister,  don’t  forget  me!’ — ‘Sister, 
Sister,  for  the  love  of  God  !  ’ — Oh,  Sister,  for  God’s  sake  !  * 
— such  were  the  cries  that  too  often  tortured  the  tender 


472 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


hearts  of  the  Sisters  as  they  found  their  stock  of  provisions 
fast  running  out,  and  knew  that  hundreds  of  hungry  ap¬ 
plicants  were  still  unsatisfied.  Many  a  time  did  they  turn 
away  on  their  homeward  journey  with  whitened  lips  and 
streaming  eyes,  as  they  beheld  those  outstretched  hands, 
and  heard  those  cries  of  gaunt  and  famished  men  ringing 
in  their  ears.  To  the  uttermost  that  they  could  do,  the 
Sisters  did,  and  this  the  prisoners  knew  in  their  grateful 
hearts.  These  horses  shed  light  in  their  path  ;  the  clatter 
of  their  feet  was  as  music  to  the  ear  of  the  anxious  listener  ; 
and  the  blessings  of  gallant  suffering  men  followed  that 
chariot  of  mercy  wherever  it  was  borne  by  its  snowy  steeds 
in  those  terrible  days  of  trial. 


Such  was  the  effect  produced  by  the  Sisters  on  the 
minds  of  the  patients  in  their  charge,  that  when  wounded 
or  sick  a  second  time,  they  would  make  every  possible 
effort  to  go  back  to  the  same  hospital  in  which  they  had 
been  previously  cared  for,  or,  if  that  were  not  possible,  to 
one  under  the  management  of  these  good  women.  In¬ 
stances  have  been  told  of  wounded  men  who  travelled 
several  hundred  miles  to  come  again  under  the  charge  of 
the  Sisters ;  and  one,  in  particular,  of  two  men  from 
Kentucky,  who  had  contrived  to  make  their  way  to  the 
large  hospital  at  White  Sulphur  Springs  in  Virginia,  a 
distance  of  200  miles  from  where  they  had  been  wounded. 
They  had  been  under  the  care  of  the  Sisters  on  a  former 
occasion,  and  had  then  agreed  that  should  they  ever  be 
wounded  or  fall  sick  again,  they  would  return  to  the  same 
hospital,  and  if  they  were  to  die,  that  they  should  die  in 
the  faith  of  the  Sisters  who  had  been  so  good  to  them. 
Both  these  men  were  American  Protestants,  and'  had 
never  seen  a  Catholic  priest  before  they  beheld  the  clergy¬ 
man  who  received  them  into  the  Church  in  the  Virginian 
hospital.  One  of  the  two  men  was  past  cure,  and  was 


*  AM  I  TO  FORGIVE  THE  YANKEES?' 


473 


conscious  of  his  approaching  death.  ‘Ben,’  said  the  dying 
man  to  his  comrade,  ‘all  is  right  with  me — I  am  happy; 
but  before  I  die,  let  me  have  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  you 
become  a  Catholic.’  Ben  willingly  consented  to  what  he 
had  before  resolved  on  doing,  and  he  was  received  into 
the  Church  in  the  presence  of  his  dying  friend,  over  whose 
features  there  stole  a  sweet  smile,  that  did  not  depart  even 
in  death. 

‘Oh,  my  God!  what’s  that!  what’s  that!’  shrieked  a  poor 
Southern  boy,  when  he  first  saw  a  Sister,  as  she  leaned  over 
his  hospital  pallet.  His  terror  was  equalled  only  by  his 
genuine  horror  when  he  discovered  she  was  a  Catholic. 
Soon,  however,  his  eyes  would  wander  round  the  ward  in 
search  of  the  nurse  with  the  sweet  smile,  the  gentle  voice, 
and  the  gentler  word.  Like  many  of  his  class  he  was 
utterly  ignorant  of  religion  of  any  description ;  he  disliked 
‘Papists,’  and  he  thought  that  sufficed  for  every  spiritual 
purpose.  At  length  he  wished  to  be  baptised  in  the 
Sister’s  faith,  and  his  instruction  was  commenced.  He 
was  told  he  should  forgive  his  enemies.  ‘  Am  I  to  forgive 
the  Yankees  ?  ’  he  asked,  with  indignant  eagerness.  ‘  Cer¬ 
tainly,’  replied  the  Sister,  ‘you  must  forgive  everybody.’ 
‘Ma’am,  no — not  the  Yankees! — no,  ma’am — not  the  Yan¬ 
kees! — I  can’t.’  ‘But  you  must  forgive  your  enemies, 
or  you  can’t  be  a  Christian.  God  forgave  those  who  put 
him  to  death,’  persisted  the  Sister.  ‘Well,  Sister,  as  you 
ask  me  to  do  it,  I  will  forgive  the  Yankees ;  but  ’tis  hard 
to  do  it  though,  I  tell  you.’ 

‘Before  we  left  Vicksburg  to  attend  the  hospitals,’  says 
a  Sister,  ‘many  of  the  Irish  soldiers  returned  dreadfully 
wounded  from  the  battle  of  Shiloh,  where  our  pastor,  who 
had  gone  to  assist  their  dying  moments,  said  they  had 
fought,  “not  like  men,  but  like  indomitable  lions.”  Wg 
had  many  brave  Irish  patients,  but  our  principal  expe¬ 
rience  in  hospital  lay  amongst  Creoles,  or  soldiers  from 
the  country  parts  of  the  South,  whose  horror  of  Sisters  at 


474 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


first  (  grounded  on  their  ignorance),  formed  a  strange  con* 
fcrast  to  their  subsequent  grateful  affection.’ 

‘  They  shrank  from  us  with  looks  of  horror  and  loathing, 
as  if  we  were  something  full  of  evil,’  remarked  a  Sister, 
whose  name  was  famous  for  skill,  and  an  energy  that  ex¬ 
cited  the  amazement  of  those  who  beheld  her  in  the 
management  of  a  great  hospital.  Many  a  letter,  replete 
with  gratitude  and  veneration,  came  to  that  Sister  from  all 
parts  of  the  States,  North  and  South,  and  not  a  few  from 
those  who  at  first  regarded  her  ‘with  looks  of  horror  and 
loathing,  as  if  she  were  full  of  evil.’ 

The  doctors  were  not  one  whit  behind  the  humblest 
soldiers  in  ignorant  dislike  of  the  Sisters. 

A  Federal  doctor  was  at  first  inclined  to  be  rude  and 
uncivil  to  the  Sisters  in  the  crowded  Southern  hospital, 
then  in  possession  of  the  forces  of  the  Union,  and  occasioned 
them  no  little  anxiety  by  his  manner,  it  was  so  full  of 
evident  dislike  and  suspicion.  They  wfisely  took  no  notice 
of  it,  but  devoted  themselves  the  more  sedulously  to  their 
arduous  duties.  At  the  end  of  a  few  weeks,  by  which  time 
his  manner  had  become  kind  and  respectful,  the  doctor 
candidly  confessed  to  one  of  the  Sisters  what  his  feelings 
had  been,  and  how  completely  they  were  changed.  ‘I 
had  such  an  aversion  to  Catholics,’  said  he,  ‘that  I  would 
not  tolerate  one  of  them  in  an  hospital  with  me.  I  had 
heard  of  the  Sisters,  but  I  was  resolved  not  to  have  any¬ 
thing  to  do  with  them  in  any  place  in  which  I  had  control. 
I  confess  to  you  my  mind  is  entirely  changed  ;  and  so  far 
from  not  wishing  to  have  Sisters  in  an  hospital  where  I 
am,  I  never  want  to  be  in  an  hospital  where  they  are  not.’ 

The  officials  were,  if  possible,  still  more  suspicious,  still 
more  prejudiced. 

‘  I  used  to  be  up  at  night  watching  you,  when  I  should 
have  been  in  my  bed.  I  wanted  to  see  what  mischief  you 
were  after,  for  I  thought  you  had  some  bad  motive  or 
object,  and  I  was  determined  to  know  what  it  wras.  I 


PREJUDICES  CONQUERED. 


475 


could  find  nothing  wrong,  but  it  was  a  long  time  beh  re  I 
could  believe  in  you,  my  prejudice  against  you  was  so 
strong.  Now  I  can  laugh  at  my  absurd  suspicions,  and  I 
don’t  care  telling  you  of  my  nonsense.’  This  speech  was 
made  by  the  steward  of  an  hospital  to  Sisters  to  whom  he 
had  given  much  trouble  by  his  manner,  which  seemed  to 
imply — ‘  You  are  humbugs,  and  I’ll  find  *  you  out,  my 
ladies !  clever  as  you  think  you  are.’  He  was  a  good  but 
prejudiced  man  ;  and  once  that  he  was  convinced  how 
groundless  were  his  suspicions,  he  not  only  treated  the 
Sisters  with  marked  respect,  but  became  one  of  their 
most  strenuous  and  valuable  supporters. 

A  doctor  of  the  Federal  service,  wrho  wras  captured  at 
the  battle  of  Shiloh,  said  to  a  Catholic  bishop, — ‘Bishop, 
I  was  a  great  bigot,  and  I  hated  the  Catholics  ;  but  my 
opinions  are  changed  since  this  war.  I  have  seen  no 
animosity,  but  fraternal  love,  in  the  conduct  of  the  priests 
of  both  sides.  I  have  seen  the  same  kind  offices  rendered 
without  distinction  to  Catholic  soldiers  of  the  North  and 
South.  The  very  opposite  with  Protestant  chaplains  and 
soldiers.’ 

‘  What  conclusion  did  you  draw  from  this  ? — these  Cath¬ 
olics  are  not  Freemasons,’  said  the  Bishop. 

‘Well,’  replied  the  doctor,  ‘I  drew  this  from  it — that 
there  must  be  some  wonderful  unity  in  Catholicity  which 
nothing  can  destroy,  not  even  the  passions  of  war.’ 

‘A  very  right  inference,’  was  the  Bishop’s  rejoinder. 

An  officer  who  was  brought  in  wounded  to  an  hospital 
at  Obanninville,  near  Pensacola,  which  w&s  under  the  care 
of  Sisters,  asked  a  friend  in  the  same  hospital  what  he 
would  call  ‘  those  women  ’ — how  address  them  ?  ‘  Call 

them  “  Sisters,”  replied  his  friend.  ‘  Sisters !  They  are 
no  sisters  of  mine  ;  I  should  be  sorry  they  were.’  ‘  I  tell 
you,  you  will  find  them  as  good  as  sisters  in  the  hour  of 
need.’  ‘I  don’t  believe  it,’  muttered  the  surly  patient. 
Owing,  in  a  great  measure,  to  the  care  of  his  good  nurses, 


476 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


the  officer  was  soon  able  to  leave  the  hospital  strong  in 
body  as  well  as  improved  in  mind.  Before  he  was  well 
enough  to  leave,  he  said  to  his  friend, — ‘Look  here  !  I  was 
always  an  enemy  to  the  Catholic  Church.  I  wras  led  to 
believe  by  the  preachers  that  these  Sisters — both  nuns 
and  priests — were  all  bad.  But  when  I  get  out  of  this, 
I  be  God  darned,  if  I  don’t  knock  the  first  man  head  over 
heels  who  dares  say  a  word  against  the  Sisters  in  my  pres¬ 
ence  !  ’  He  was  rough,  but  thoroughly  honest. 

During  the  war,  a  number  of  the  Sisters  were  on  their 
way  to  an  hospital,  to  the  care  of  which  they  had  been 
urgently  called,  and,  as  the  train  remained  stationary  at 
one  of  the  stopping-places  on  the  route,  their  dress  excited 
the  wonder  and  ridicule  of  some  thoughtless  idlers,  wTho 
entered  the  car  and  seated  themselves  opposite  to,  but 
near,  the  objects  of  their  curiosity,  at  whom  they  looked 
and  spoke  in  a  manner  far  from  complimentary.  The 
Sisters  bore  the  annoyance  unflinchingly.  But  there  was 
assistance  nearer  than  they  or  their  cowardly  tormentors 
supposed.  A  stout  man,  bronzed  and  bearded,  who  had 
been  sitting  at  one  end  of  the  car,  quietly  advanced,  and 
placing  himself  in  front  of  the  ill-mannered  offenders, 
said,  ‘Look  here,  my  lads!  You  don’t  know  who  these 
ladies  are  ;  I  do.  And  if  you  had  been,  like  me,  lying 
sick  and  wounded  on  an  hospital  bed,  and  been  tended 
night  and  day  by  those  ladies,  as  I  was,  you’d  then  know 
them  and  respect  them  as  well  as  I  do.  They  are  holy 
women.  And  now,  if  you  don’t,  every  one  of  you,  at  once 
quit  this  car,  I’ll  call  the  conductor,  and  have  you  turned 
out ;  and  if  you  say  one  word  more,  I’ll  whip  you  all  when 
I  have  you  outside.’  The  young  fellows  shrank  away 
abashed,  as  much  perhaps  at  the  justice  of  the  rebuke  a3 
at  the  evident  power  by  wrhich,  if  necessary,  it  would 
have  been  rendered  still  more  impressive. 

It  was  a  touching  sight  to  witness  the  manner  in  which 
soldiers  who  had  experienced  the  devotedness  of  the  Sisters 


AN  EMPHATIC  rebuke. 


477 


to  the  sad  duties  of  the  hospital,  exhibited  their  veneration 
for  these  ‘holy  women.’  Did  the  Sisters  happen  to  be  in 
the  same  car  with  the  gallant  fellows,  there  was  not  one  of 
them  who  did  not  proffer  his  place  to  the  Sister,  and  who 
did  not  feel  honoured  by  her  acceptance  of  it.  Maimed, 
lopped  of  limb,  scarcely  convalescent,  still  there  was  not  a 
crippled  brave  of  them  who  would  not  eagerly  solicit  the 
Sister  to  occupy  the  place  he  so  much  required  for  himself. 
‘  Sister,  do  take  my  seat ;  it  is  the  most  comfortable.’ 
*  Oh,  Sister,  take  mine  ;  do  oblige  me.’  ‘  No,  Sister  !  mine.’ 
Sweet  was  the  Sister’s  reward  as,  in  their  feeble  but  earnest 
tones  of  entreaty,  and  the  smiles  lighting  up  pale  wan 
faces,  she  read  the  deep  gratitude  of  the  men  who  had  bled 
for  what  each  deemed  to  be  the  sacred  cause  of  country. 
Wherever  the  Sister  went,  she  brought  with  her  an  atmo¬ 
sphere  of  holiness.  At  the  first  sight  of  the  little  glazed 
cap,  or  the  flapping  cornet ,  or  the  dark  robe,  or  at  the 
whisper  that  the  Sister  was  coming  or  present,  even  the 
profane  and  the  ribald  were  hushed  into  decent  silence. 

As  a  company  of  Confederate  prisoners  were  marched 
through  Washington,  a  Sister  of  Mercy  who  was  passing 
was  arrested  by  the  exclamation,  *  There  she  is  !  That’s 
she  !  I  owe  my  life  to  her.  She  attended  me  in  the  hos¬ 
pital.  Oh,  Sister !  ’  The  Sister  approached,  and  as  the 
prisoners  were  passing,  the  one  who  used  these  words  rap¬ 
idly  dropped  something  into  her  hand.  It  was  less  than 
the  widow’s  mite — it  was  a  regimental  button  !  But  it  was 
accepted  in  the  spirit  in  which  it  was  offered,  as  a  memo¬ 
rial  ;  and  as  such,  I  know,  it  is  cherished. 

A  Baptist  preacher  was  rather  unexpectedly  rebuked  in 
the  midst  of  his  congregation  by  one  of  its  members  who 
had  experience  of  the  Sisters  in  the  hospital.  Addressing 
his  audience,  he  thought  to  enliven  his  discourse  with  the 
customary  spice — vigorous  abuse  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
and  a  lively  description  of  the  badness  of  nuns  and  priests  ; 
in  fact,  taking  the  Awful  Disclosures  of  Maria  Monk  as  his 


478  THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 

test  and  inspiration.  But  just  as  the  preacher,  warming 
with  his  own  eloquence,  was  heightening  his  picture  with 
colours  borrowed  from  a  rather  prurient  imagination,  these 
strange  words  were  thundered  forth  by  a  sturdy  Western 
farmer,  wTho  sprang  to  his  legs  in  an  impulse  of  uncon¬ 
trollable  indignation, — ‘  Sir,  that’s  a  damned  lie  !  ’  The 
consternation  of  the  audience  was  great,  the  excitement 
intense.  The  preacher  solemnly  reminded  his  erring 
brother  that  that  was  ‘the  house  of  God.’  ‘Well,  sir,’ 
replied  the  farmer,  ‘  as  it  is  the  house  of  God,  it  is  a  lie 
without  the  damned.’  Then  looking  round  boldly  at  the 
meeting,  which  contained  many  to  wdiom  he  was  'well 
known,  he  thus  continued  :  ‘  I  thought  and  believed  the 
same  as  you  thought  and  believed,  because  I  was  told  so, 
as  you  were ;  but  I  have  lived  to  learn  the  difference — to 
know  that  what  we  were  told,  Sunday  after  Sunday,  is  not 
true.  I  was  in  the  prison  at  MtDowall’s  College ;  I  was 
there  for  six  months  ;  and  I  saw  the  Sisters  waiting  on  the 
prisoners,  and  nursing  the  sick — unpaid  and  disinterested. 
I  saw  them  giving  up  their  whole  time  to  doing  good,  and 
doing  it  without  fee  or  reward.  I  saw  the  priests,  too, 
constant  in  their  attendance — yes,  shaming  other  ministers 
by  the  manner  in  which  they  did  their  duty.  That  six 
months  cured  me  of  my  folly ;  and  I  tell  you,  you  know 
me  to  be  a  man  of  truth,  that  the  Catholic  Church  is  not 
the  thing  it  is  represented  to  be,  and  that  Sisters  and 
Priests  are  not  what  our  minister  says  they  are  ;  and  that 
I’ll  stand  to.’ 

The  sympathies  of  the  audience  wTent  writh  the  earnest¬ 
ness  of  the  speaker,  whose  manner  carried  conviction  to 
their  minds ;  and  so  strongly  did  the  tide  of  feeling  flow 
against  the  preacher,  that  he  dexterously  returned  to  what, 
in  Parliamentary  phrase,  may  be  described  as  ‘  the  previous 
question.’ 

Not  very  long  before  I  visited  a  place  in  Tennessee,  a 
delegation  from  a  district  in  which  there  was  not  a  single 


‘  WE  WANT  TO  BECOME  CATHOLICS.'  479 

Catliolic  waited  on  an  Irish  priest  of  my  acquaintance; 
their  object  being  to  consult  with  him  as  to  the  feasibility 
of  building  a  Catholic  church  in  the  place.  ‘  A  Catholic 
church !  ’  exclaimed  the  priest ;  ‘  what  can  you  want  of  a 
Catholic  church,  and  not  a  Catholic  in  the  place  ?  ’  The 
answer  wuis  remarkable  :  ‘We  here  are  all  ex-soldiers,  and 
have  been  in  the  war;  and  when  we  returned,  the  preachers 
— Methodists,  Presbyterians,  and  others — asked  us  to  join 
their  churches,  as  before.  We  said  nothing  at  the  time,  but 
held  a  meeting,  and  sent  this  reply  :  “  Before  the  war, 

you  told  us  that  Catholics  were  capable  of  committing 
every  crime  ;  that  priests  and  nuns  were  all  bad  alike. 
We  went  to  the  war;  we  were  in  hospitals,  and  we  met 
members  of  our  own  society  there  ;  but  the  only  persons 
who  did  anything  for  us,  or  cared  anything  about  us,  were 
these  same  Catholics,  the  Priests  and  Sisters  that  you  so 
represented  to  us.  We  were  in  the  prisons  of  the  North, 
and  it  was  the  same.  Now  what  you  told  us  about  Cath¬ 
olics  was  not  true.  We  can’t  have  any  further  confidence 
in  you,  and  we  will  have  nothing  more  to  do  with  you.  If 
we  be  anything,  we  will  be  Catholics.”  That  was  our 
reply  ;  and  we  now  come  to  consult  a  Catholic  priest,  to 
see  how  best  we  may  carry  out  our  intentions,  and  become 
Catholics. 

The  above  I  give,  not  because  it  is  the  most  remarkable 
of  such  applications,  which  are  very  numerous,  and  are 
constantly  made  in  many  dioceses  throughout  the  States. 
The  majority  of  another  such  ‘delegation’  told  the  bishop 
on  whom  they  waited  that  they  had  been  strong  Know 
Nothings  before  the  war ;  and  one  of  them  declared  that 
he  had  assisted  to  ‘  tar  and  feather  ’  a  priest,  and  that  in 
so  doing  he  thought  he  was  doing  a  service  to  God !  ‘We 
don’t  know  what  the  doctrines  of  your  Church  are  ;  these 
we  desire  to  learn  ;  but  though  we  don’t  know  its  doc¬ 
trines,  we  have  seen  its  conduct  during  the  war,  and  that 
conduct  we  admired. 


480 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


Thai,  the  Sisters — those  truest  exponents  of  Catholic 
charity — win  the  respect  of  Protestants  at  other  times 
than  during  war,  and  in  the  ordinary  discharge  of  their 
duty,  we  have  a  proof  in  the  following  incident  : — 

The  Archbishop  of  San  Francisco  and  other  Catholic 
bishops  were  on  their  way  to  the  Council  of  Baltimore ; 
and  as  the  bishops  and  the  clergy  by  whom  they  were 
accompanied  desired  to  have  the  use  of  an  apartment  or 
cabin,  in  which  Mass  could  be  daily  offered  up,  the 
Archbishop  made  a  request  to  that  effect  to  the  Captain 
of  the  vessel,  who  thus  replied  :  ‘  Archbishop,  there  are 
twenty  preachers  on  board  who  asked  me  to  allow  them 
to  preach,  and  I  have  refused  them,  because  they  would 
create  nothing  but  confusion.  But,  Archbishop,  though 
/  am  an  Episcopalian,  I  am  much  obliged  to  you.  The 
yellow  fever  broke  out  in  my  crew,  and  my  ministers  de¬ 
serted  me  ;  but  3^011  sent  the  Sisters,  and  they  came  and 
nursed  my  men  all  through  their  sickness.  I  never  can 
"orget  it ;  and  whatever  I  can  do  for  a  Catholic  bishop  or 
for  the  Sisters,  I  will  do  most  gladly.  You  shall  have  the 
2:00m,  Archbishop.’ 

And  as  these  words  are  written,  the  same  terrible  scourge  • 
is  thinning  the  ranks  of  the  Sisters  in  New  Orleans,  many 
of  whom  have  fallen  martyrs  to  their  zeal  and  duty. 

A  Southern  General  said  to  me,  ‘  The  war  has  worn 
away  many  a  prejudice  against  Catholics,  such  was  the 
exemplary  conduct  of  the  priests  in  the  camp  and  the 
hospital,  and  the  Christian  attitude  of  the  Church  during 
the  whole  of  the  struggle.  Many  kind  and  generous  acts 
were  done  by  the  priests  to  persecuted  ladies,  who  now 
tell  with  gratitude  of  their  services.  Wherever  an  asylum 
was  required,  they  found  it  for  them.  I  wish  all  ministers 
had  been  like  the  priests,  and  we  might  never  have  had 
this  war,  or  it  would  not  have  been  so  bitter  as  it  was.’ 

I  elsewhere  mentioned  the  munificent  gift  made  by  two 
Protestant  gentlemen  to  a  Sister  in  Cincinnati ;  and  as 


SISTER  ANTHONY. 


481 


that  munificent  gift — of  a  splendid  hospital — is  but  one, 
though  a  striking  proof  of  the  influence  which  the  work 
of  the  Sisters  has  had  on  the  enlightened  Protestant  mind 
of  America,  something  may  be  said  of  the  object  of  that 
donation.  There  is  nothing  remarkable  in  the  personal 
appearance  of  Sister  Anthony — nothing  of  the  stately  or 
the  majestic — nothing  that  harmonises  with  the  romantic 
or  the  poetical.  Sister  Anthony  is  sallow  in  complexion, 
worn  in  feature,  but  with  a  bright  intelligent  look,  and  an 
air  of  genuine  goodness.  Though  thoroughly  unaffected 
in  manner,  and  without  the  faintest  trace  of  show,  every 
word  she  utters  betrays  an  animating  spirit  of  piety,  an 
ever-present  consciousness  of  her  mission — which  is,  to  do 
good.  One  feels  better  in  her  presence,  lifted  up,  as  it  were, 
into  a  purer  and  brighter  atmosphere.  In  accent  and  man¬ 
ner  she  is  strongly  American ;  and  had  I  not  been  assured 
by  herself  that  she  was  born  in  Ireland — somewhere,  I  be¬ 
lieve,  between  Limerick  and  Tipperary — I  should  have  taken 
her  for  a  ‘  full-blooded  American,’  that  is,  if  Sister  Anthony 
could  be  taken  for  a  ‘ full-blooded’  anything.  For  a  con¬ 
siderable  time  Sister  Anthony  held  a  subordinate  position, 
to  which  she  thoroughly  adapted  herself ;  but  it  was  im¬ 
possible  she  could  continue  to  conceal  her  great  natural 
ability  and  talents  for  organisation  and  management.  Her 
first  important  work  was  the  establishment  of  the  Hospital 
of  St.  John,  which  became  so  famous  and  so  popular  under 
her  management,  that  the  most  distinguished  physicians  of 
Cincinnati  sent  their  patients  to  her  care.  In  this  hospital 
Sister  Anthony  made  herself  perfect  in  the  science  of  nursing 
the  sick.  When  the  war  broke  out,  she,  with  twelve  Sisters, 
took  charge  of  the  Field  Hospital  of  the  Armies  of  the 
Cumberland  and  the  Tennessee,  and  nursed  the  wounded 
and  the  sick  in  the  South  and  South-West  during  its  con¬ 
tinuance.  Such  was  the  estimate  formed  of  the  services 
of  these  and  other  Sisters  of  the  same  institution,  as  well 

as  of  the  Catholic  Chaplains,  that  the  Generals  in  com- 

21 


482 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


mand  frequently  wrote  to  Archbishop  Purcell,  asking  for 
*  more  Priests  and  more  Sisters,  they  were  so  full  of  devo¬ 
tion  to  their  duty.’  Nearly  all  of  those  Sisters  were,  like 
Sister  Anthony,  Irish.  Her  influence  was  immense.  Even 
the  surliest  official  or  stiffest  martinet  could  not  resist 
Sister  Anthony.  There  was  a  contagion  in  her  goodness. 
Some  years  before,  when  in  a  subordinate  capacity  in  the 
Orphan  Asylum  under  the  care  of  her  Order,  Sister  An¬ 
thony  was  in  the  market,  bargaining  for  chickens  to  make 
broth  for  some  sick  children,  when  the  salesman,  perhaps 
wearied  of  her  importunity,  said — ‘If  you  were  a  pretty 
woman,  I’d  talk  to  you  longer  ;  but  you  are  so  darnd 
ugly,  you  may  go  your  ways,  and  take  the  chickens  at  your 
own  price.’  Sister  Anthony,  who  never  gave  a  thought  to 
her  personal  appearance,  good-humouredly  accepted  the 
compliment  wdiich  ensured  her  a  profitable  bargain  for  her 
poor  little  chicks  in  the  asylum.  But  the  wounded  sol¬ 
dier  on  the  hospital  pallet  was  not  of  the  fowl-merchant’s 
opinion ;  the  sick  man  saw  everything  good  and  beautiful 
in  the  countenance  of  the  nurse  who  smoothed  his  pillow 
with  hand  light  as  a  feather’s  weight,  and,  with  voice 
attuned  to  the  tenderest  compassion,  won  him  to  hope  and 
resignation.  At  the  mere  wdiisper  of  the  name  of  Sister 
Anthony,  the  eye  of  the  invalid  brightened,  and  a  pale 
flush  stole  over  his  wasted  cheek ;  and  when  it  was  men¬ 
tioned  in  the  presence  of  strong  men,  it  was  received  with 
a  hearty  blessing  or  a  vigorous  cheer.  Protestant  and 
Catholic  alike  reverenced  Sister  Anthony.  There  was  no 
eulogium  too  exaggerated  for  her  praise,  or  for  their  grati¬ 
tude.  She  was  styled  *  the  Ministering  Angel  of  the  Army 
of  the  Tennessee,’  and  Protestants  hailed  her  as  ‘  an  angel 
of  goodness.’  And  at  a  grand  re-union,  in  November  1866, 
of  the  generals  and  officers  of  the  army  in  whose  hospitals 
Sister  Anthony  had  served,  her  name  was  greeted  with  en¬ 
thusiastic  applause  by  gallant  and  grateful  men. 

The  United  States  Marine  Hospital,  constructed  at  a 


SISTER  ANTHONY. 


483 


cost  of  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  dollars,  was  sold  for 
70,000  dollars,  at  which  price  it  was  purchased  by  two 
Protestant  gentlemen,  and  by  them  ‘  donated  ’  to  Sister 
Anthony,  and  is  known  by  the  beautiful  and  felicitous  title 
‘the  Hospital  of  the  Good  Samaritan.’  This  fine  institu¬ 
tion  is  now  at  the  service  of  the  sick  and  suffering  of 
Cincinnati.  These  generous  Protestant  gentlemen  w~ere 
known  to  Sister  Anthony,  and  she  to  them.  Some  time 
before,  it  wTas  her  intention  to  build,  and  in  the  course  of 
a  few  months  she  obtained  30,000  dollars  to  aid  her  in 
her  task.  But,  changing  her  mind,  from  not  wishing  to 
undertake  so  great  a  work  as  she  at  first  contemplated,  she 
determined  to  refund  every  dollar  of  the  money.  When 
she  came  to  those  two  gentlemen,  she  tendered  to  them 
their  liberal  subscription ;  but  they  refused  to  accept  it, 
saying :  ‘  No ;  we  gave  it  to  God.  We  cannot  take  it 
back.’ 

Sister  Anthony  is  not  insensible  to  the  influence  she 
exercises,  as  the  following  brief  dialogue  will  show  : — 

Sister  Anthony  (to  a  friend ).  I  guess  I  want  this  hospital 

painted.  I  guess  Mr.  -  (mentioning  the  name  of  a 

worthy  citizen)  will  paint  it. 

Friend.  Why,  sister !  he  is  not  a  painter ;  he  is  a 
grocer. 

Sister  Anthony.  I  know  that,  child  ;  but  he  is  a  rich  man, 
and  he  will  have  to  paint  it. 

And  it  was  just  as  Sister  Anthony  said.  He  had  to  paint 
it,  and  he  felt  honoured  by  the  distinction  conferred  upon 
him. 

One  day  Sister  Anthony  was  transacting  some  business 
in  the  city  with  the  prosperous  owner  of  a  large  store. 
When  the  business  was  concluded,  the  owner  said  :  ‘Sister, 
■where  is  your  conveyance — your  horse  and  buggy — to  take 
you  up  the  hill?’  ‘I  have  no  horse,’  replied  Sister 
Anthony.  ‘  Then  I  will  get  you  a  horse  and  buggy,’  said 
the  store-keeper.  ‘The  conveyance  I  have  had  for  the 


484 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


last  fifty  years  is  still  very  good,  but  the  horses  want 
shoeing,’  answered  Sister  Anthony,  pointing  to  her  shoes, 
which  were  in  the  very  last  stage  in  which  that  article  of 
dress  could  possibly  exist.  A  box  of  the  best  shoes  was  at 
once  supplied  to  Sister  Anthony’s  well-employed  ‘  horses.’ 

I  present  Sister  Anthony  only  as  a  type,  not  of  her  own 
noble  Order,  but  of  all  kindred  Orders  ;  for,  throughout 
the  United  States,  there  are  hundreds  of  Sister  Anthonys, 
who,  like  her,  have  been  styled  ‘ministering  angels,’  and 
‘  angels  of  goodness ;  ’  at  the  mention  of  whose  honoured 
names  blessings  rise  from  the  hearts  to  the  lips  of  grateful 
men,  and  mothers  in  distant  homes  pray  at  night  for  those 
who  nursed  their  wounded  sons  in  the  hospital,  or  minis¬ 
tered  to  them  in  the  prison. 

"Whether  in  the  hospital  and  the  prison,  or  on  the  field 
of  battle,  the  Catholic  Chaplain  won  the  respect  of  all 
classes  and  ranks  of  men.  I  have  heard  soldiers  of  world¬ 
wide  fame  speak  with  enthusiasm  of  the  gallantry  and 
devotion  of  the  Catholic  Military  Chaplains,  who  calmly 
performed  their  duty  amidst  the  fury  of  conflict,  and  while 
bullets  whistled  by  them,  and  shells  shrieked  as  they 
passed  over  their  heads.  The  idea  of  danger  may  cross 
the  mind  of  the  Catholic  priest,  but  it  never  deters  him 
from  the  discharge  of  his  duty,  which  is  performed  as 
coolly  on  the  battle-field  as  in  the  wards  of  an  hospital. 
Soldier  of  the  Cross,  he  encounters  danger  in  every  form 
and  under  every  aspect.  Without  departing  in  the  least 
from  his  ordinary  course,  or  making  the  slightest  attempt 
at  display,  the  Catholic  Priest — so  long  the  object  of  the 
foulest  calumny  and  the  most  disgusting  ribaldry — found 
in  the  events  of  the  war  daily  opportunities  of  exhibiting 
himself  in  his  true  light ;  and  soon  was  suspicion  changed 
into  confidence,  and  prejudice  into  respect.  Unswerving 
attention  to  duty  is  the  grand  characteristic  of  the  Catholic 
priest  ;  and  when  the  non-Catliolic  officer  or  private  found 
the  priest  always  at  his  post,  attending  on  the  sick,  raising 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHAPLAIN. 


485 


the  drooping  spirits  of  the  patient,  preparing  the  dying 
for  their  last  hour,  he  could  not  help  contrasting  the  un¬ 
tiring  devotion  of  the  Catholic  Chaplain  with  the  lax  zeal 
• — if  zeal  it  could  be  called — of  too  many  of  those  who 
assumed  that  office,  or  that  distinctive  title,  during  the 
war.  When  men  are  stretched  on  a  sick  bed,  and  they 
depend  so  entirely  for  assistance  or  relief  on  the  attention 
and  kindness  of  those  around  them,  they  form  rapid  and 
unerring  estimates  of  merit ;  and  if  they  cannot  be  deceived 
by  the  sham  nurse  or  the  worthless  physician,  neither 
can  they  be  hoodwinked  by  pharisaical  cant  or  religious 
pretension.  The  genuine  metal  was  tested  in  the  tire  of 
the  crucible,  and  was  admitted  to  be  sterling. 

Throughout  the  war  the  Catholic  priest  acted  in  the 
spirit  of  his  Church.  The  Church  was  a  peace-maker, 
not  a  partisan.  So  were  her  ministers.  It  little  mattered 
to  the  priest  at  which  side  the  wounded  soldier  had 
fought,  or  in  what  cause  the  prisoner  had  been  made 
captive ;  it  was  sufficient  for  him  to  know  that  the  sick 
and  the  imprisoned  stood  in  need  of  his  assistance,  which 
he  never  failed  to  afford.  The  Church  deplored  the  out¬ 
break  of  war,  mourned  over  its  horrors,  and  prayed  for  its 
cessation.  As  with  the  Church,  so  with  the  priest.  It  is 
not  in  human  nature  to  suppose  that  the  Catholic  priests 
did  not  feel  a  sympathy  with  one  side  or  the  other  ;  but 
no  weakness  common  to  humanity  could  deaden  the  feel¬ 
ing  of  charity,  which  is  the  living  principle  of  Catho¬ 
licity  ;  and  while  the  Federal  Chaplain  ministered  to  the 
Confederate  soldier  or  prisoner,  the  Confederate  Chaplain 
ministered  with  equal  care  and  solicitude  to  the  soldier 
who  fought  under  the  banner  of  the  Union.  This  Catholic 
charity — this  spiritual  bridging  over  of  the  yawning  gulf 
of  raging  passions — produced  a  deep  impression  on  the 
minds  of  thoughtful  men.  Many  instances  might  be  told 
of  the  manner  in  which  this  feeling  operated  on  the  minds 
of  individuals ;  one  will  suffice  : 


4s6 


THE  IRISH  IX  AMERICA. 


A  lawyer  of  Lonisaana  was  practising  in  Missouri  at  the 
opening  of  the  war :  and  being-  known  ns  -a  Confederate 
sympathiser,  was  arrested,  and  sent  as  a  prisoner  to  For: 
Warren,  in  Boston  Harbor.  He  Lai  studied  law  in 
Boston,  where  he  imagined  Le  had  made  several  lastinr 
friends  of  members  of  his  profession.  Taking  means  to 
communicate  with  some  of  those  on  whom  he  most  relie  1 
for  sympathy.  if  not  for  assistance,  he  informed  mem  cf 
Lis  position,  and  besought  their  aid.  in  the  name  of 
friendship  and  the  memory  of  the  pleasant  days  of  the 
v.  as:  n:  ho  at  t  earn  a  in  '  am — war  : :  emr  :-:mr:  mise  1 

bv  a  suspected  rebel  or  the  Litter  premdiee  bom  of  me 
hour,  was  too  strong  to  be  overcome  by  a  momentary  m_- 
pnlse ;  and  tie  prisoner  languished  in  captivity.  They — 
the  friends  of  ins  youth — not;  but  an  TriA  priest 
did.  Attracted  to  the  prisoner  by  feelings  of  comp  a-.-i  :m 
he  comforted  and  consoled  him  and  assisted  :  ho  to  the 
utmost  of  his  means  and  influence.  That  lawyer  1 earned 
to  love  the  Church  of  which  that  priest  was  a  worthy 
minister  :  and  his  own  words  may  throw  light  ci  his  con- 
TGision,  -which  took  place  soon,  after : — Looking  back 
upon  the  war.  I  see  that  the  Protestants  of  the  Forth 
were  charitable  to  their  own  side,  and  mat  the  Protestant  - 
of  the  South  were  very  charitable  to  their  side :  bn:  the 
Catholics  are  the  onlv  bodT  of  Christians  who  practised 
charity  for  its  oven  saJ.e,  irrespective  of  politics,  and  who 
did  so  even  when  it  was  unpopular,  if  not  dangerous  for 
them  to  do  so/ 

To e  lawyer  who  languished  in  the  prison  of  Boston 
Harbor  was  not  the  only  one  who  experienced  the  ralne 
of  a  charity  which  has  neither  sect  nor  party,  and  knew  no 
difference  between  cause  or  banner  in  that  hoar  of  national 
convulsion. 

There  was  one  other  i  whence,  potent  in  Impelling  the 
dark  prejnd  ices  imbibed  in  infancy,  and  fostered  by  fana¬ 
tical  teachers  ;  this  was  the  faith,  the  piety,  the  resignation 


THE  IRISH  SOLDIER  IN  THE  HOSPITAL. 


487 


of  the  Irish  Catholic  soldier,  of  whatever  rank,  as  he  lay 
wounded  or  dying  in  the  hospital.  In  the  devotedness  of 
the  Sister  and  the  Priest  there  was  a  beautiful  exemplifi¬ 
cation  of  the  spirit  of  Christian  Charity  ;  in  the  unmur¬ 
muring  resignation  of  the  Catholic  Soldier  there  was  the 
irresistible  evidence  of  Christian  Faith.  Many  a  proud 
scoffer,  to  whom  the  very  name  of  Catholic  had  been 
odious,  received  his  first  impression  of  the  truth  from  the 
edifying  demeanour  of  some  Irish  soldier  who  lay  in 
anguish  by  his  side,  and  who,  before  he  rushed  into  the 
thickest  of  the  fight,  had  not  been  ashamed  to  crave  the 
blessing  of  his  priest.  It  was  the  same  in  the  hospitals  of 
the  States  as  in  the  hospitals  of  the  Crimea. 


488 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


Catholic  Education — The  Catholic  Church  in  Advance  of  the 
Age — Catholic  Teaching  favourable  to  Parental  Authority— 
Protestant  confidence  in  true  Catholics — The  Liberal  American 
Protestant — Catholic  Schools — The  Sister  In  the  School  and  the 
Asylum — Protestant  Confidence  in  Convent  Schools — The  Chris¬ 
tian  Brothers — Other  Teaching  Orders — From  the  Camp  to  the 
School. 


ROM  tlie  earliest  moment  that  a  Catholic  community 


JJ  was  gathered  together  in  the  United  States,  it  sough i 
to  train  its  youth  in  the  principles  of  religion.  The  history 
of  Catholic  education  in  America  would  form  a  story  of  tin 
deepest  interest  to  those  who  reverence  steadfastness  ant 
courage.  It  would  record  privations  cheerfully  endured 
poverty  and  want  heroically  disregarded.  But  the  granc 
object — the  moral  training  of  the  young — successfully 
advanced.  The  efforts  of  the  clergy  to  promote  this 
essential  object  have  been  almost  marvellous,  considering 
the  difficulties  of  their  position  and  the  smallness  of  then 
means,  as  well  as  the  influences  which  opposed  them ;  bul 
the  result  would  have  been  scanty  and  partial,  were  then 
not  the  devotedness  and  self-sacrifice  of  holy  women  tc 
appeal  to.  The  same  spirit  that  impelled  the  Sister  tc 
brave  the  perils  of  the  fever  shed  and  cholera  ward  gave 
her  fortitude  to  endure  the  drudgery  of  teaching  in  the 
crowded  school ;  and,  thanks  alike  to  the  energy  of  the 
religious  communities  throughout  the  United  States,  anc 
the  respect  in  which  they  and  their  work  are  held,  female 
education  for  Catholic  youth  is  now  provided  for  to  a  very 
large  extent.  There  is  much  more  to  be  done,  but  vasl 
things  have  been  already  accomplished. 


CATHOLIC  EDUCATION. 


489 


The  Catholic  Church  holds  that  religious  education  is 
necessary  for  the  children  of  its  communion.  Others  may 
hold  different  notions  ;  but  this  is  its  fixed  and  unalterable 
belief.  Nor  is  it  singular  in  this  respect.  If  it  be  a  grave 
error  to  consider  that  it  is  well  to  form  and  mould  the 
moral  nature  of  youth,  while  you  develop  and  strengthen 
its  intellectual  faculties,  that  error  is  shared  in  common 
with  the  most  advanced  nations  of  Europe, — Protestant 
Prussia  and  Protestant  England  —  Catholic  Austria  and 
Catholic  France.  Fortunately  for  the  future  of  the  Irish 

*  According  to  tlie  Prussian  Constitution,  adopted  the  31st  of  January,  1850, 
it  is  provided  that  ‘in  the  management  of  the  Public  Schools  the  confessional 
relations  must  be  kept  in  view  as  much  as  possible.’  By  ‘  confessional  relations  ’ 
are  meant  religious  denominations.  Three  classes  of  schools  are  strictly  de¬ 
nominational, — Elementary  Schools,  Normal  Schools,  and  Gymnasiums. 

Elementary  Schools.  There  is  no  mixed  school,  save  only  in  a  locality 
in  which,  from  the  smallness  of  the  population,  two  schools  cannot  be  main¬ 
tained  ;  and  in  such  case  the  faith  of  the  children  is  rigidly  protected.  Each 
Elementary  School  has  a  Local  Inspector  and  a  School  Committee.  The  Local 
Inspector  of  the  Catholic  school  is  invariably  the  Parish  Priest.  The  Head 
Inspector  is  the  Catholic  Dean,  the  district  being  coterminous  with  the  eccle¬ 
siastical  division. 

Normal  Schools.  These  schools  are  for  the  teaching  and  training  of 
Teachers.  There  are,  in  Protestant  Prussia,  as  in  Protestant  England,  Catholic 
Normal  Schools  for  Catholics,  as  well  as  Protestant  Normal  Schools  for  Protes¬ 
tants.  In  the  Catholic  School  the  President  is  a  priest,  and  all  the  teachers 
are  Catholics.  The  President  is  appointed  by  the  King ;  but,  before  recom¬ 
mending  his  appoiniment,  the  Minister  is  hound  to  consult  the  Catholic  '  Bishop  of 
the  diocese ,  and  to  recommend  a  person  fully  approved  by  him. 

The  religious  books  in  the  Catholic  Normal  School  are  prescribed  by  th« 
Bishop ;  and  the  class  books  in  which  matter  dangerous  to  faith  or  morals 
may  possibly  appear,  are  submitted  to  the  Bishop,  who  has  a  veto  on  their 
selection . 

The  pupil  of  the  Catholic  Normal  School,  though  successful  in  examination, 
cannot  receive  his  or  her  ‘  patent,  ’  or  diploma,  without  the  concurrent  approbation 
of  the  Government  Commissioner  and  the  Bishop. 

The  Gymnasiums  are  as  strictly  denominational  as  the  Elementary  and  Normal 
Schools. 

Catholics  are  represented  on  the  Education  Board  by  a  special  member  of  the 
Privy  Council  of  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  who  is  the  official  organ  of 
the  Catholics.  The  Collegiate  system  is,  as  yet,  only  approximating  to  the 
same  principle  of  strict  and  rigid  impartiality  ;  but  it  is  to  be  hoped  the  higher 
educational  institutions  will,  ere  long,  assimilate  to  those  of  the  primary  and 
secondary  classes. 

So  much  for  Protestant  Prussia,  whose  National  Education  ha  its  main 
features,  is  very  similar  to  that  of  Protestant  England.  We  may  n®w  see  in 


490 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


in  America,  this  is  the  belief  of  the  best  and  greatest 
portion  of  the  Catholic  population  throughout  the  United 
States.  To  obtain  the  advantages  of  strictly  religious 
training  for  their  children,  Catholics  must  of  necessity 
make  large  sacrifices.  They  have  no  option  but  to  pay 
the  tax  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Public  Schools,  to 
which  all  classes  have  free  access,  and  in  which  all  receive 
a  gratuitous  and  liberal  education  ;  but  while  Catholics 
pay  their  quota  of  the  public  rate,  they  assess  themselves 
voluntarily  for  the  support  of  the  schools  of  which  their 
Church  approves.  There  have  been  unavoidable  defects 
in.  the  Catholic  schools  in  some  districts,  and  under  certain 
circumstances  ;  it  being  difficult  for  a  poor  congregation, 
that  has  everything  to  provide,  everything  to  accomplish, 
to  vie  with  the  State  in  the  character  and  material  of  its 

■what  manner  a  Catholic  nation  respects  the  conscientious  convictions  of  tho 
minority  of  its  population. 

Of  Catholic  Austria,  Mr.  Kay,  a  recognised  authority  on  matters  of  education, 
and  a  Protestant,  thus  writes  : — 

‘The  most  interesting  and  satisfactory  feature  of  the  Austrian  system  is  the 
great  liberality  with  which  the  Government,  although  so  staunch  an  adherent 
and  supporter  of  the  Romanist  priesthood,  has  treated  the  religious  parties  who 
differ  from  themselves  in  their  religious  dogmas.  It  has  been  entirely  owing  to 
this  liberality,  that  neither  the  great  number  of  the  sects  in  Austria,  nor  the  great 
differences  of  their  religious  tenets,  have  hindered  the  work  of  the  education  of  the 
poor  throughout  the  empire.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  it  has  been  demonstrated  that 
fuch  difficulties  may  be  easily  overcome ,  when  a  Government  understands  how  to 
raise  a  nation  in  civilisation,  and  wishes  earnestly  to  do  so. 

‘  In  those  parishes  of  the  Austrian  empire  where  there  are  any  dissenters  from 
the  Romanist  Church,  the  education  of  their  children  is  not  directed  by  the 
priests,  but  is  committed  to  the  care  of  the  dissenting  ministers.  These  latter  are 
empowered  and  required  by  Government  to  provide  for,  to  watch  over,  and  to 
promote  the  education  of  the  children  of  their  own  sects ,  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
priests  are  required  to  do  for  the  education  of  their  children.’ 

The  same  writer  thus  disposes  of  the  alleged  difficulty  —  some  will  say  im¬ 
possibility — of  dealing  with  this  great  question  on  principles  of  strict  and  im¬ 
partial  justice  to  all.  It  is  of  Catholic  States  he  now  writes  : — 

‘And  yet  in  these  countries — Austria,  Bavaria,  and  the  Rhine  Provinces,  and 
the  Catholic  Swiss  Cantons  —  the  difficulties  arising  from  religious  differences 
have  been  overcome,  and  all  their  children  have  been  brought  under  the  influence  of 
religious  education  without  any  religious  party  having  been  offended. ’—Kay,  vol.  ii., 
page  3. 

May  not  Young  America  learn  a  lesson,  in  this  respect,  from  the  modern 
enlightenment  of  venerable  but  progressive  Europe  ? 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  IN  ADVANCE  OF  THE  AG E.  4!)t 


schools.  Defects  there  have  been,  and  there  must  be  for 
a  time  ;  but  these  have  been  -wisely  borne  with,  so  long  as 
they  were  unavoidable  ;  for  wdiatever  inferiority  there  may 
have  been,  or  may  still  be,  in  one  respect,  it  has  been 
more  than  compensated  by  immeasurably  greater  ad¬ 
vantages.  But  these  defects  belong  rather  to  the  past, 
and  to  parishes  still  in  their  first  difficulties  of  church 
building  and  other  costly  undertakings  of  a  kindred 
nature — not  to  parishes  in  which  the  main  wants  have 
been  provided  for,  or  where  the  schools  have  been  any 
time  established.  On  the  contrary,  there  are  numerous 
instances  in  which  the  Catholic  school  is  greatly  superior 
to  the  Public  School,  and  where  the  Catholic  college  puts 
to  shame  the  most  advanced  of  the  educational  institutions 
of  the  State.  Notwithstanding  the  stupid  assertions  of  the 
bigoted  or  the  ignorant,  the  Church  never  did  lag  behind  in 
the  march  of  intellect ;  it  has  ever  put  itself  in  the  van  of 
the  intellectual  movement  in  every  country.*  It  thoroughly 
comprehends  its  position,  its  responsibility,  and  its  duty ; 
and  while  it  is  solicitous  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  its 
flock,  it , never  disdains  the  task  of  fitting  youth  for  the 
practical  business  of  daily  life,  and  the  varied  pursuits  and 
duties  of  citizenship. 


*  Mr.  Kay,  whose  anti-Catholic  prejudice  breathes  in  every  page  of  his  work, 
thus  refutes  the  old  calumny  against  the  Church: — 

‘  In  Catholic  Germany,  in  France,  and  even  in  Italy,  the  education  of  the 
common  people  in  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  music,  manners,  and  morals,  is 
at  least  as  generally  diffused  and  as  faithfully  promoted  by  the  clerical  body  as 
in  Scotland,  It  is  by  their  own  advance,  and  not  by  keeping  back  the  advance  of  the 
peojile,  that  the  Popish  priesthood  of  the  present  day  seeks  to  keep  ahead  of  the  in¬ 
tellectual  progress  of  the  community  in  Catholic  lands ;  and  they  might  perhaps 
retort  on  our  Presbyterian  clergy,  and  ask  if  they  too  are,  in  their  countries,  at 
the  head  of  the  intellectual  movement  of  the  age  ?  Education  is  in  reality  not 
only  not  suppressed,  but  is  encouraged,  by  the  Popish  Church,  and  is  a  mighty 
instrument  in  its  hands,  and  ably  used.  In  every  street  of  home,  for  instance, 
there  are,  at  short  distances,  public  primary  schools  for  the  education  of  the 
children  of  the  lower  and  middle  classes  in  the  neighbourhood  Pome,  with  a 
population  of  158,000  souls,  has  372  public  primary  schools,  with  482  teachers, 
and  14,000  children  attending  them.  Has  Edinburgh  so  many  schools  for  the 
instruction  of  these  classes?  I  doubt  it.  Berlin,  with  a  population  about 
double  that  of  Rome,  has  only  264  schools.  Rome  has  also  her  University,  with 
an  average  attendance  of  600  students  ;  and  the  Papal  States,  with  a  population 
of  2,500,000,  contains  7  universities.  Prussia,  with  a  population  of  14,000,000,  has 
but  7  ’ 

This  was  written  before  the’  dismemberment  of  the  Papal  Slates  by  the  Pope’/ 
ally,  the  King  of  Sardinia, 


492 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


How  eminently  practical  is  the  training  given  in  America 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Catholic  Church,  may  be  under¬ 
stood  from  the  following  description  of  the  system  adopted 
in  the  schools  of  the  Sisters  of  Mercy.  The  same  system, 
I  may  remark,  is  common  to  the  religious  communities  of 
the  United  States.  The  writer  is  a  Sister  of  the  Order  of 
Mercy,  who  thus  writes  to  a  friend,  from  a  convent  in 
Missouri.  The  letter  is  dated  the  3d  of  June  1867  : — 

‘Two  points  of  difference  between  our  schools  and  the  Publio 
‘Schools  I  will  note:  with  us,  children  of  every  class  learn  to  work , 
‘  devoting  nearly  two  hours  a  day  to  it ;  drawing  is  also  taught  in 
‘connection  with  fancy  work.  We  believe  it  of  the  greatest  import 
‘  ance  to  bring  up  our  children  to  industrious  habits,  especially  in  a 
‘  country  like  this,  where  reverses  are  so  common,  and  where  people 
‘  are  often  so  suddenly  thrown  upon  their  own  resources.  The  public 
‘  common  schools  never  teach  manual  work  of  any  kind— hence  their 
‘pupils  grow  up  with  a  sort  of  contempt  for  it,  and,  in  case  of  family 
‘  reverses,  find  it  difficult  to  hit  upon  any  honest  way  of  earning  a  live¬ 
lihood.  They  are  willing  to  take  professions,  but  dislike  much  to 
*  apply  to  trades.  Many  Protestants  of  the  more  sensible  classes  send 
‘their  children  to  us  on  this  account.  In  some  places  the  school 
‘  authorities  have  given  several  public  schools  to  the  Sisters  of  Mercy, 
‘  who  now  teach  them  in  these  ’ — the  places  mentioned — ‘  and  other 
4  places.’ 

The  writer  explains  the  other  feature  of  interest,  which 
is  of  scarcely  less  importance  : — 

‘  We  develop  in  our  pupils  a  taste  for  useful  and  elegant  reading, 
‘  not  always  or  necessarily  religious,  but  in  all  cases  perfectly  unex- 
4  ceptionable.  By  thus  cultivating  their  tastes,  we  hope  to  give  them 
‘  rational  occupation  for  their  leisure,  and  to  hinder  them  from  con¬ 
tracting  a  liking  for  foolish  or  pernicious  reading.  I  need  not  tell 
‘  you  that  the  other  schools  do  not  take  this  precaution,  and  the 
‘  consequence  may  be  seen  in  the  immense  circulation  of  works  of  a 
‘  deleterious  character,  which  are  eagerly  read,  even  by  children,  and 
4  to  which  much  of  the  crime  so  prevalent  may  be  traced.  Circulating 
‘  libraries  are  established  in  common  with  our  schools,  sodalities,  &c.’ 

‘  It  is  bard  to  bring  up  youtli,  especially  boys,  in  this 
country,’  has  been  the  grave  complaint  of  Irish  fathers  to 
whom  I  spoke  on  this  subject,  or  who  themselves  made 


FAVOURABLE  TO  PARENTAL  AUTHORITY.  49A 

it  one  of  anxious  remark.  This  is  felt  more  keenly  by 
parents  who  have  reared  children  in  the  old  country  as 
well  as  in  America.  In  Ireland  the  family  ties  are  strong 
and  enduring,  while  respect  for  parents  and  deference  to 
parental  authority  is  the  characteristic  of  the  country 
— of  all  but  the  vicious  and  the  worthless.  The  mind 
of  Ireland  tends  to  moral  conservatism, — it  reverences 
authority,  eminently  that  of  the  parent  or  the  pastor. 
It  is  otherwise  in  America,  whose  institutions,  no  less 
than  the  circumstances  of  a  country  yet  in  its  early  youth, 
are  favourable  to  the  most  complete  personal  independence. 
When  guided  by  reason,  and  controlled  by  the  religious 
principle,  nobility  of  character  and  dignity  of  bearing 
are  the  natural  result  of  this  consciousness  of  personal  as 
well  as  public  freedom ;  but  without  such  controlling  in¬ 
fluences,  this  independence  too  often  degenerates  into  a 
manner  and  tone  of  thought  which  is  neither  admirable  nor 
attractive.  The  youth  of  the  country  rapidly  catch  the 
prevailing  spirit,  and  thus  become  impatient  of  restraint 
at  a  period  of  life  when  restraint  is  indispensable  to  their 
future  well-being.  This  is  peculiarly  observable  in  the 
youth  who  are  educated  in  the  Public  Schools.  The  boy 
who  is  trained  in  these  institutions  is  too  apt  to  disregard, 
if  not  altogether  despise,  that  authority  which  is  held  so 
sacred  in  Ireland  ;  and  once  this  first  and  holiest  of  all 
influences  is  lost,  on  goes  the  headlong  youth,  reckless  of 
consequences,  and  the  slave  of  every  impulse.  There  is 
nothing  more  graceful  than  modesty  in  youth,  and  that 
proper  respect  which  it  manifests  towards  age  and  worth. 
Self-esteem,  not  reverence,  is  the  bump  which  the  Public 
School  system  of  America — a  system  purely  secular — 
develops  ;  and  of  all  the  pupils  gathered  within  the  walls 
of  these  schools,  none  are  so  quick  to  catch  and  reflect 
the  prevailing  influence  as  the  children  of  the  Irish.  The 
young  urchin  of  eight  or  ten  is  not  a  little  proud  of  the 
distinction  of  being  a  free  and  independent  citizen  of  the 


494 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


Great  Republic  ;  and  it  may  be  doubted  if  the  pity  which 
he  occasionally  feels  for  his  homely  and  unaffected  Irish 
father  is  not  unconsciously  tinctured  with  Native  American 
contempt  for  the  ‘foreigner/  and  the  ‘Pat.’ 

The  Catholic  Schools,  on  the  contrary,  inculcate  obedi¬ 
ence  to  parental  authority — respect  for  the  head  of  the 
family — reverence  for  holy  things, — for  what  is  great  and 
good  and  noble  ;  while  at  the  same  time  they  carefully 
prepare  their  pupils  for  the  ordinary  pursuits  of  life,  and 
fit  them  to  make  their  "way  in  the  world,  by  honesty, 
industry,  and  intelligence.  They  send  the  youth  better 
armed  into  the  world  to  fight  his  way  against  difficulty 
and  temptation,  and  they  give  him  a  resource  on  which  he 
may  fall  back  at  every  period  of  his  future  career.  A 
sound  Catholic  education  affords  the  best  protection  against 
the  blight  of  indifferentism,  which  is  a  dangerous  evil  to 
the  Irish  in  America — to  that  portion  of  the  population 
whose  conduct  is  most  severely  scrutinised,  or  who  are 
regarded,  at  least  by  some,  and  those  not  a  few,  with  sus¬ 
picion  or  dislike. 

This  system  of  education  extends,  while  it  secures,  the 
legitimate  influence  of  the  Church  ;  and  that  influence  is 
beneficial  in  a  worldly  and  temporal  point  of  view,  as  well 
as  in  the  inner  life  of  the  Catholic.  Whatever  the  preju¬ 
dice  of  a  class  of  Americans,  they  are,  on  the  whole,  a 
just  and  generous  people,  thoroughly  alive  to  real  merit, 
and  ready  to  appreciate  and  confide  in  it.  They  may  not 
admire  the  Catholic  religion  in  the  abstract  ;  they  may 
object  to  its  tenets,  or  they  may  attribute  to  the  Church 
principles  and  a  policy  which  have  been,  times  without 
number,  repudiated  and  disproved ;  but  they  instinctively 
admire  and  respect  a  Catholic  who  is  not  ashamed  to  admit 
his  loyalty  to  his  creed,  and  who  exhibits  in  his  life  and 
conduct  the  influence  of  its  teaching.  There  are  in  New 
York,  as  in  the  other  cities  of  America,  merchants  and 
bankers  and  men  of  business  who  listen  with  grave  atten- 


PROTESTANT  CONFIDENCE  IN  TRUE  CATHOLICS.  495 


(ion,  if  not  warm  approval,  to  inflammatory  harangues — 
one  cannot  call  them  sermons,  for  a  sermon  suggests  the 
idea  of  a  religious  discourse — against  ‘Popery  and  its 
abominations  ; 5  who  will  even  join  in  a  crusade  against 
Catholic  franchises  and  freedom — who  will  contribute 
largely,  and  even  munificently,  to  the  funds  of  some 
aggressive  organisation  or  hostile  institution — who  will 
countenance  a  wrong  done,  if  not  to  parental  authority, 
at  least  to  religious  liberty  and  Christian  charity,  in  the 
persons  of  miserable  children,  the  victims  of  poverty  or 
neglect ; — but  the  same  merchants,  bankers,  and  men  of 
business  will  place  implicit  confidence  in  the  honesty  and 
fidelity  of  Catholics — Irish  Catholics  too — whom  they  know 
to  be  devoted  to  their  Church,  and  constant  in  the  perform¬ 
ance  of  their  religious  duties.  Nay,  the  very  men  who  do 
not  hesitate  to  indulge  in  the  common  cant  about  priests 
and  confession,  will  privately  enquire  whether  the  Catholic 
whom  they  employ  attends  his  church,  and  complies  with 
its  spiritual  obligations.  These  men  will  place  their  banks, 
their  warehouses,  their  offices,  their  concerns,  in  the  cus¬ 
tody  of  humble  Irishmen  of  the  class  who  consider  that 
true  fidelity  to  their  native  country  includes  unswerving 
devotion  to  its  ancient  faith.  In  New  York  there  are  few 
places  of  business  which  are  not  confided  to  the  vigilant 
custody  of  Irishmen  of  this  stamp  ;  and  rarely  has  this 
confidence  been  violated.  Money,  documents,  goods,  valu¬ 
able  effects  of  all  kinds,  are  constantly  under  their  hands, 
and  at  their  mercy  ;  but  no  doubt  arises  as  to  the  trust¬ 
worthiness  of  the  guardian  or  the  safety  of  the  property. 
Probably,  if  the  proprietor  learned  that  the  guardian  of 
his  property  had  ceased  to  be  a  practical  Catholic,  his 
confidence  would  not  remain  long  unshaken  ;  and  thus  the 
same  man  of  experience  and  intellect  who  allowed  himself 
to  be  deluded  by  all  manner  of  anti-Catholic  nonsense, 
would  be  the  first  to  recognise,  in  his  own  interest,  how 
salutary  was  the  influence  of  the  Church  over  the  con- 


490 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


sciences  of  those  who  were  faithful  to  its  precepts.  And, 
in  their  quiet,  humble  unobtrusive  way,  the  Irish  Catholics 
who  live  in  accordance  with  the  teachings  of  their  Church 
—who,  steady,  sober,  diligent,  faithful,  are  as  solicitous  for 
the  welfare  of  their  employers  as  for  their  own  advance¬ 
ment,— Irishmen  of  this  class  not  only  maintain  the  honour 
of  their  country  and  the  truth  of  their  religion,  but  do 
much  to  remove  prejudice,  and  bring  about  conversions. 

The  same  applies  to  Irish  Catholics  of  different  classes, 
and  to  women  as  well  as  men.  Even  bigoted  mistresses 
and  employers  will  prefer  the  testimony  of  the  Priest  or 
the  Sister  to  all  other  testimonies  as  to  the  character  and 
conduct  of  a  Catholic  girl  or  woman,  and  will  afford  her 
facilities  to  ‘  go  to  her  duty  ’ — will  even  reproach  her  if 
she  appear  to  be  lax  or  indifferent ;  which,  however,  is  not 
common  with  Irish  Catholic  females.  Thus,  in  a  mere 
worldly  or  temporal  point  of  view,  practical  adherence  to 
their  Church  is  beneficial  to  Catholics  in  America  ;  and  to 
Catholic  teaching  alone  is  this  adherence — this  noble  yet 
unobtrusive  loyalty — to  be  looked  for  in  the  rising  gene¬ 
ration  of  that  race  whose  fidelity  to  their  faith  has  been 
tested  by  centuries  of  persecution. 

To  provide  what  they  rightly  consider  to  be  the  best 
education  for  their  children,  Catholics  freely  tax  them¬ 
selves  ;  but  among  the  generous  contributors  to  Catholic 
schools  are  American  Protestants,  who  desire  to  promote 
education  wherever  they  can,  and  who  recognise  in  Catho¬ 
lic  teaching  a  benefit  to  the  community  as  well  as  to 
the  individual.  They  are  specially  pleased  to  witness  the 
attention  bestowed  by  the  clergy  on  the  schools  of  their 
parish,  the  pride  they  manifest  in  their  improvement,  and 
the  efforts  they  make  to  induce  cleanliness  of  person,  de¬ 
cency  of  dress,  and  propriety  of  demeanour.  It  is  custom¬ 
ary  for  the  priest  to  refuse  admittance  to  the  child  unless  it 
is  clean  and  properly  clad,  the  priest  knowing  well  thai  the 
vice,  not  the  poverty  of  the  parent,  is  the  cause  of  the 


THE  LIBERAL  AMERICAN  PROTESTANT. 


497 


condition  of  the  child ;  and  very  often  the  parent  is  thus 
shamed  into  a  sense  of  decency  by  the  rebuke  implied  in 
this  refusal,  and  the  child  is  soon  fit  to  pass  muster,  and 
to  be  received  among  the  other  children  of  the  school. 
The  priest  also  tries  to  reach  the  parents  through  their 
children,  and  frequently  with  signal  success ;  the  growing 
intelligence  and  modest  piety  of  the  child  acts  as  a  check 
on  the  folly  of  the  parent,  and  brings  the  indifferent  or 
the  obdurate  within  the  salutary  influence  of  the  Church. 
What  most  impresses  the  liberal  Protestant  in  his  obser¬ 
vation  of  Catholic  schools  is  the  paternal  solicitude  of  the 
pastor  for  the  welfare  of  his  young  flock.  And  not  only 
will  a  really  enlightened  non-Catholic  of  any  denomination 
rarely  refuse  an  application  for  assistance  towards  the  ex¬ 
tension  of  Catholic  education,  should  such  be  made  to  him, 
but  most  frequently  are  voluntary  offerings — and  to  a  con¬ 
siderable  amount — made  by  Protestants  who  appreciate 
the  conscientious  opposition  of  the  Catholic  clergy  to  any 
system  of  training  of  youth  which  is  not  based  upon 
religion,  and  who  witness  the  strenuous  efforts  they  make 
to  raise  the  standard  of  teaching  in  their  schools. 

in  unprejudiced  observer — and  there  are  perhaps  more 
of  that  class  in  America  than  in  any  country  in  the  world — * 
will  naturally  say:  ‘The  Catholic  Church  is  responsible 
‘  for  the  conduct  and  character  of  its  flock — responsible 
‘  to  the  world,  as  well  as  to  God  ;  it  must  know  what 
'description  of  education  is  most  suited  to  its  youth — 
‘which  system  will  make  them  better  Christians,  better 
‘  men  and  women,  better  citizens.  It  is  the  oldest  Church 
‘in  the  world,  therefore  the  ripest  in  the  wisdom  of  ex¬ 
perience-;  and  that  experience  convinces  it  that  educa- 
‘  tion  based  on  religion — education  which  comprehends  the 
‘  spiritual  and  moral  as  well  as  the  intellectual  nature  of 
‘  the  human  being — that  which  strengthens  and  purifies 
‘  the  heart  and  moulds  the  conscience,  while  it  develops 
‘the  mind  and  stores  the  memory  of  the  pupil — is  that 


498 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


‘  which  is  the  best  preparation  for  the  battle  of  life.  If 
then,  the  Catholic  Church  is  held  responsible — as  un¬ 
doubtedly  it  is — for  the  character  and  conduct  of  those 
‘  who  call  themselves  Catholics,  or  are  recognised  as 
‘Catholics,  why  should  it  not  adopt  and  insist  upon  hav¬ 
ing  that  system  of  instruction  which  it  knows  to  be  most 
‘  conducive  to  the  useful  end  at  which  it  aims  ?  If  we  are 
‘not  yet  wise  enough,  or  liberal  enough,  to  assist  them 
1  through  the  State,  at  least  we  should  do  so  as  indi¬ 
viduals.’ 

The  educational  resources  of  the  Catholic  Church  of 
A  merica — meaning  thereby  the  teachers,  the  buildings, 
and  the  pecuniary  means — are  not  as  yet  equal  to  the 
daily-increasing  requirements  of  the  country ;  but  though 
they  do  not  and  cannot  keep  pace  with  the  demand  made 
upon  them,  they  are  being  steadily  and  even  wondrously 
developed.  The  teaching  staff  is  deficient  alone  in  num¬ 
bers  ;  its  energy,  its  zeal,  and  its  efficiency  are  equal  to 
every  legitimate  effort.  What  can  be  done  under  the 
circumstances  is  done,  and  admirably  done  ;  but  more 
teachers  and  more  schools  and  larger  means  are  in  many, 
indeed  most  instances  indispensable.  For  female  schools, 
and  infant  schools  for  both  sexes,  the  American  Church 
can  boast  of  a  noble  array  of  the  Religious  Orders,  who 
are  carrying  true  civilisation  into  every  quarter.  Even 
while  an  infant  city  is  struggling  into  existence,  beginning 
to  dot  itself  here  and  there  with  an  odd  building  in  red 
brick,  you  see  a  convent ;  and  in  the  school  attached  you 
hear  the  grateful  hum  of  youthful  voices.  The  religious 
communities  in  America  are  numerous,  but  all  are  devoted 
to  works  of  active,  practical  usefulness,  which  even  the  most 
sceptical  must  appreciate.  Among  this  glorious  army  of 
human  benefactors — the  most  successful  civilisers  whom 
the  world  knows — are  the  Orders  of  Charity  and  Mercy, 
of  Notre  Dame,  the  Sacred  Heart,  the  Ursulines,  the 
Presentation,  Benedictines,  Dominicans,  Franciscans,  the 


CATHOLIC  SCHOOLS. 


499 


Holy  Cross,  of  St.  Joseph,  of  Providence,  of  the  Visitation, 
of  Nazareth,  of  Loretto,  of  the  Precious  Blood,  of  the 
Holy  name  of  Jesus,  and  others  known  to  the  Catholics 
of  America.  For  male  schools,  of  every  class,  the  Church 
enjoys  the  invaluable  services  of  the  world-famous  Order 
of  Jesus,  whose  colleges,  academies  and  schools  cannot  be 
excelled  by  any  educational  establishments  in  the  United 
States.  To  these  are  added  Sulpitians,  Franciscans,  Vin¬ 
centians,  Redemptorists,  the  Congregation  of  the  Holy 
Cross,  and  the  Brothers  of  the  Christian  Schools.  But 
these,  and  others  not  particularised,  though  numerous  and 
zealous  in  the  cause  of  Christian  education,  bear  still  but  a 
small  proportion  to  the  increasing  demand  for  their  teaching. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  give  a  detailed  account  of  the 
progress  of  Catholic  education  in  America.  Such  is  that 
progress,  that  the  description  of  to-day  would  not  suffico 
for  to-morrow.  Thus  in  the  city  of  New  York  there  are 
now  about  30,000  children  receiving  education  in  Catholic 
schools ;  but  in  all  probability  40,000  would  not  fully 
represent  the  number  that  may  be  in  attendance  at  the 
close  of  18G8.  Somewhere  about  1833,  a  single  priest  was 
‘  attending  Brooklin,’  then  regarded  as  a  suburb  of  New 
York ;  now  there  are  not  fewer  than  12,000  Catholic 
children  in  Catholic  training  in  that  populous  city.  In 
places  which  have  grown  up  within  the  last  twenty  years, 
I  found  from  12,000  to  15,000  children  under  various 
Religous  Orders,  notwithstanding  that  the  Public  Schools 
were  likewise  in  full  and  successful  activity.  And  even  in 
small  cities  there  were  such  numbers  as  4,000  and  5,000 
and  6,000,  while  the  most  strenuous  efforts  were  made  by 
bishops  and  priests  to  extend  their  school  accommodation 
and  increase  the  number  of  their  pupils  ;  and  in  all  cases 
the  majority  of  the  children  were  Irish — either  Irish  born 
or  the  offspring  of  Irish  parents.  The  school  that  com¬ 
mences  with  300  soon  expands  into  500,  and  the  500 
rapidly  grow  into  1,000 — and  so  on.  In  New  York  there 


500 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


are  parishes  in  v/liicli  the  attendance  in  their  Catholic 
schools  is  between  2,000  and  3,000 ;  and  in  these  parishes 
efforts  are  still  made  to  extend  the  blessings  of  the  best 
system  of  education  to  those  wTho,  perhaps  of  all  other 
children  in  the  world,  are  destined  to  be  tried  by  the  most 
dangerous  temptations.  I  saw  throughout  the  States  large 
and  spacious  schools  growing  up  in  every  direction  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Church ;  and  I  can  remember  how, 
when  visiting  a  Southern  city,  which  was  slowly  rising 
above  the  ashes  of  its  desolation,  I  was  impressed  with  the 
zeal  of  the  Catholics — mostly  Irish — who  were  erecting  a 
fine  female  school  for  500  pupils,  which  was  to  be  placed 
under  the  care  of  Sisters. 

Without  a  community  of  Sisters,  no  parish,  no  Catholic 
community  is  properly  provided  for ;  with  Sisters  the 
work  of  reformation  is  really  begun.  Themselves  examples 
of  everything  good  and  holy,  gentle  and  refined,  they  soon 
exercise  a  salutary  influence  over  adults  as  well  as  child¬ 
ren.  And  what  can  equal  the  patience  of  the  Sister  in 
the  daily  drudgery  of  the  crowded  school  ?  It  is  something 
wonderful,  and  can  only  be  accounted  for  by  the  light  in 
which  she  regards  her  work — as  a  duty  acceptable  to  God. 
Whatever  she  does,  her  heart  is  in  it ;  the  motive,  object, 
feeling — all  exalt  and  render  it  sacred  in  her  eyes.  It  is 
the  consciousness  of  the  sacredness  of  the  nun’s  vocation 
that  enables  her  to  go  through  her  laborious  duties  with 
such  unfailing  regularity  and  such  matchless  cheerfulness 
and  patience.  Entering  any  of  the  free  schools  of  America, 
one  may  see  young  Sisters,  with  the  bloom  of  youth’s 
freshness  on  their  cheek,  as  calm  and  unmoved  amidst  the 
clatter  and  clamour  of  a  school  of  some  hundred  girls  or  little 
boys,  as  if  that  cheek  had  grown  pale  and  worn  with  age. 
I  remember  coming  into  a  crowded  school  in  a  remote  and 
not  over  rich  district ;  the  teaching  staff  was  miserably 
small,  and  each  of  the  two  Sisters  had  to  instruct  and 
manage  a  disproportionately  large  number  of  young  people. 


THE  SISTER  IN  THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  ASYLUM.  501 


As  I  raised  the  latch  of  the  door  of  the  boys’  school — in 
which  there  must  have  been  seventy  or  eighty  little  fellows 
of  all  ages,  from  four  or  five  to  twelve — the  clatter  was 
prodigious.  But  as  the  door  opened,  and  the  stranger 
entered,  the  spell  of  silence — unwonted  silence — fell  upon 
the  youthful  students.  The  Sister  was  a  young  Irish¬ 
woman  ;  and  notwithstanding  the  calm  serenity  of  her 
countenance,  and  the  cheerfulness  of  her  manner,  there 
was  something  of  weariness  about  her  eyes — what  one  may 
occasionally  remark  in  the  face  of  a  fond  mother  of  a 
family  on  whom  she  cloats,  but  who  are  nevertheless  *  too 
much  for  her.’  ‘  I  am  afraid,  Sister,’  I  remarked,  c  these 
young  gentlemen  are  a  little  difficult  to  manage  at  times?’ 
4  Well,  certainly,  they  are  a  little  troublesome — occasion¬ 
ally,’  she  replied ;  ‘  but,’  she  added,  as  her  glance  roamed 
round  the  school,  and  it  rested  on  the  familiar  features  of 
so  many  loved  ones,  and  her  voice  softened  into  the 
sweetest  tones,  ‘  poor  little  fellows,  they  are  very  good  on 
the  whole — indeed  very  good.’  I  did  not  remain  long ; 
and  as  the  door  closed  after  me,  I  knew,  by  the  splendid 
clatter  which  was  almost  instantaneously  renewed,  that 
the  trials  of  the  Sister  had  again  begun. 

If  the  patience  of  the  Sister  in  the  school-room  is 
admirable,  what  can  be  said  of  her  devotion  to  the  orphan 
in  the  asylum?  It  is  the  compensation  which  religion 
makes  to  the  bereaved  one  for  the  loss  of  a  mother’s  love. 
The  waifs  and  strays  of  society  are  cared  for,  watched 
over  with  a  solicitude  which  the  natural  love  of  \  parent 
can  alone  excel.  I  have  seen  many  such  asylums  in 
America — in  the  British  Provinces  as  in  the  States. 
Among  those  •  helpless  little  beings  there  is  always  one 
who  is  sure  to  be,  not  better  cared  for  or  more  beloved, 
but  the  ‘  pet  ’ — a  tiny  toddler,  who  will  cling  in  the  Sister’s 
robe,  or  cry  itself  to  sleep  in  her  arms;  or  the  ‘prodigy’ 
of  the  riper  age  of  three  or  four — a  young  gentleman  who, 
after  conquering  his  bashfulness,  will  dance  an  Irish  jig,  or 


502 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


a  negro  breakdown,  or  recite  a  pretty  pious  t  erse,  or  sing 
something  comic  enough  to  set  all  the  children  in  a  roar 
of  innocent  delight,  in  which  the  Sister  is  sure  to  join.  In 
one  of  these  asylums  I  remember  to  have  seen,  in  the 
centre  of  a  large  apartment,  occupied  as  a  day  room  by 
the  youngest  children,  a  couch,  on  which  lay  a  helpless 
and  hopeless  infant  cripple  ;  and  how  the  poor  little  thing, 
whose  feeble  tide  of  life  was  slowly  ebbing,  followed  with 
a  look  of  pleasure  and  a  faint  sickly  smile,  the  performance 
of  the  infant  prodigy.  And  no  mother  could  have  spoken 
to  that  stricken  child  with  a  gentler  voice,  or  watched  over 
it  with  a  fonder  solicitude,  than  the  Sister,  whom  the  in¬ 
spiration  of  Faith  had  given  to  it  as  a  second  parent. 

While  passing  through  various  institutions  under  the 
management  of  religious  communities,  the  thought  has 
often  struck  me — that  if  those  who  entertain  strange 
notions  as  to  the  real  character  of  these  communities,  had 
the  same  opportunities  as  I  have  had,  in  Europe  as  in 
America,  of  witnessing  the  daily  drudgery  of  the  Sisters 
engaged  in  the  laborious  and  wearisome  task  of  education 
— the  services  of  the  Sisters  in  the  orphan  asylum,  the 
prison,  the  penitentiary,  the  hospital — in  visiting  the  sick, 
protecting  the  unprotected  female,  teaching  habits  of  in¬ 
dustry  and  neatness,  bringing  back  the  erring  and  the 
fallen  to  safety  and  penitence — in  their  daily  life,  in  which 
they  exemplify  the  beauty  and  holiness  of  their  mission — 
how  prejudice  would  vanish!  And  how  the  good  and  the 
enlightened  would  understand  that  if  society  loses  the 
advantage  of  the  presence  and  influence  of  these  holy 
women  in  the  ordinary  paths  of  life,. as  sisters,  wives,  and 
mothers,  it  is  compensated  a  thousandfold  by  their  services 
in  the  training  of  youth,  in  the  care  of  the  orphan,  in  the 
reclamation  of  the  sinner,  in  the  relief  of  the  suffering — 
nay,  in  the  formation  of  the  female  mind  on  the  solid 
basis  of  piety,  and  preparing  the  young  girl,  whether  the 
daughter  of  affluence  or  the  child  of  the  people,  for  the 


PROTESTANT  CONFIDENCE  IN  CONVENT  SCHOOLS.  503 


fulfilment  of  her  future  duties,  as  wife  and  mother,  as  com¬ 
panion  or  as  guide.* 

But  whatever  the  prejudices  of  the  ignorant  or  the 
fanatical  may  be,  the  enlightened  of  America  recognise 
the  value  of  the  training  which  young  girls  receive  in 
schools  conducted  by  members  of  religious  communities — 
by  women  wrho  are  accomplished,  gentle,  graceful,  and 
refined — who  combine  the  highest  intellectual  cultivation 
with  genuine  goodness.  Protestants  of  all  denominations, 
and  of  strong  religious  convictions  too,  send  their  daugh¬ 
ters  to  convent  schools ;  and,  strange  as  it  may  appear  to 
one  who  visits  America  for  the  first  time,  more  than  half  of 
all  the  pupils  educated  in  such  institutions  are  the  children 
of  non-Catliolics !  Parents  know  that  while  under  the  care 
of  the  Sisters  their  children  are  not  exposed  to  risk  or 
danger — that  they  are  morally  safe ;  and  one  may  hear  it 
constantly  remarked  by  Protestants  that  there  is  an  inde¬ 
finable  *  something  ’  in  the  manner  of  girls  trained  by 
nuns  which  is  immeasurably  superior  to  the  artificial  fin- 


*  As  an  illustration  of  tlie  great  woi’k  done  for  society  by  the  Religious 
Orders  in  America,  the  good  deeds  of  the  community  of  a  single  institution — 
that  of  the  Sisters  of  Mercy,  New  York, — may  be  referred  to.  They  visit  tho 
sick  in  their  homes  as  well  as  in  the  hospitals  ;  they  instruct  the  criminal  in  tho 
prison,  and  prepare  the  condemned  to  meet  their  fate  in  penitence  and  re¬ 
signation  ;  they  minister  to  the  necessities  of  the  poor  and  the  destitute  ;  and, 
by  care  and  instruction,  they  protect  girls  of  good  character  from  tho  dangers 
which,  in  large  cities,  lie  in  the  path  of  youth  and  inexperienced.  They  provide 
servants  with  situations,  and  they  teach  the  young.  Though  but  eighteen 
years  in  existence  to  the  year  1864,  they,  up  to  that  date,  visited  and  relieved 
7,083  sick  poor,  and  paid  23,471  visits  to  the  sick ;  they  visited  at  the  City 
Prison  and  Sing  Sing  19,500  prisoners,  and  prepared  22  for  the  scaffold — that  is 
every  Catholic  who  suffered  the  penalty  of  death  during  twenty  years  ;  they 
relieved  92,120  cases  of  distress  ;  they  received  into  their  House  of  Protection 
9,504  young  girls  of  good  character,  and  they  provided  16,869  with  situations, 
including  those  sent  from  the  House  of  Protection  ;  they  prepared  38,024  for 
the  Sacraments  ;  and  they  did  a  number  of  other  good  works,  including  noble 
service  in  the  military  hospitals.  Is  not  this  a  splendid  record  of  work  done  for 
society?  And  is  it  possible  that  it  could  have  been  as  effectually  done  by  a 
hundred  times  the  number  of  ladies  having  domestic  engagements  and  worldly 
ties?  Then  it  is  well  for  society  that  there  are  those  who  will  sacrifice  for  the 
public  good,  though  for  their  own  spiritual  advantage,  wha£  others  prize- -in  a  word, 
that  there  are  ‘  Sisters  ’  of  various  orders  and  denominations. 


504 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


ish  of  tlie  best  secular  academy  or  college.  If  the  young 
Protestant  pupil  unwillingly  enters  the  convent  school, 
she  leaves  it  reluctantly ;  and  the  influence  of  the  impres¬ 
sion  it  has  left  upon  her  mind  is  never  lost  in  after  life — 
she  knows  how  false  are  the  accusations  made  against 
convents  and  Catholics,  and  when  others  are  prejudiced 
or  fanatical,  she  is  tolerant  and  liberal.  And  for  society 
at  large  this  conversion  to  common  sense  is  a  great  gain. 

What  is  true  of  convent  schools,  is  equally  true  of 
schools  and  colleges  under  the  care  of  the  great  educational 
Orders — Jesuits,  Sulpitians,  Vincentians,  Redemptorists, 
Brothers  of  the  Holy  Cross,  Christian  Brothers,  Francis¬ 
cans,  and  others.  Such  indeed  is  the  liberality  of  some 
parents,  that  they  formally  declare  their  willingness  to  have 
their  children  brought  up  in  the  Catholic  faith.  This  has 
more  generally  occurred  since  the  war,  which,  as  I  have 
already  shown,  triumphantly  tested  the  wisdom  of  the 
Church,  as  well  as  the  nature  and  results  of  its  teaching. 

As  the  Brothers  of  the  Christian  Schools  are  amongst 
the  most  successful  promoters  of  Catholic  education  in 
America,  something  may  be  said  as  to  their  progress. 
They  were  first  established  some  thirty  years  since  in 
Montreal,  to  which  city  they  were  invited  by  the  Sulpi¬ 
tians  ;  and  last  year,  1866,  they  had  in  Canada  19  houses, 
170  Brothers,  and  9,000  pupils.  The  first  establishment 
of  the  Order  in  the  United  States  was  in  1845,  the  next 
in  1848  ;  and  in  1866  they  were  to  be  found  in  successful 
operation  in  the  chief  cities  of  the  Union — in  which  there 
were,  that  year,  35  houses,  370  Brothers,  and  more  than 
20,000  pupils.  This  year,  1867,  there  is  a  considerable 
increase  of  houses,  brothers,  and  pupils.  The  Brothers 
now  exceed  400,  and  the  pupils  are  fast  rising  to  30,000. 

Besides  parochial  schools,  which  they  teach  with  signal 
success,  the  Brothers  conduct  several  colleges,  including 
that  at  Manhattan,  in  New  York  ;  St.  Louis,  Missouri , 
Rock  Hill,  Maryland  ;  and  Rass,  Mississippi.  Of  the  370 


THE  CHRISTIAN  BROTHERS. 


505 


Brothers  who  constituted  in  186G  the  strength  of  the 
Order  in  the  United  States,  300  were  either  Irish,  or  of 
Irish  parents.  And  of  the  English-speaking  Brothers  in 
Canada,  the  great  majority  are  of  the  same  race.  Probably 
in  1868  the  number  of  Brothers  in  the  States  may  be  at 
least  500 ;  but  were  there  5,000,  that  number  would  not 
be  too  many  for  the  work  to  be  done.  There  is  in  America 
no  lack  of  appreciation  of  the  educational  labours  of  the 
Christian  Brothers.  "With  bishops  and  clergy  the  cry  is, 
*  Give  us  more  Brothers  ’ — ‘  Oh,  if  we  had  more  brothers  !  ’ 
These  men  are  the  inheritors  of  one  of  the  best  educational 
systems  in  the  world  ;  and  devoting  themselves  exclusively 
to  their  self-imposed  task,  their  success  is  necessarily  great. 
Their  parochial  schools  vie  with  the  Public  Schools  in  the 
excellence  of  their  teaching — that  is,  in  mere  secular  know¬ 
ledge  ;  and  their  high  schools,  academies  and  colleges 
rival  any  corresponding  institutions  supported  by  the  State. 
The  proficiency  of  their  pupils  in  the  highest  branches  of 
polite  learning  is  the  theme  of  admiration  in  journals  of 
the  most  marked  Protestant  character ;  and  enlightened 
Americans  of  various  denominations  admit  the  services 
which  these  men  render  to  society  through  the  influence 
of  their  teaching  on  the  rising  youth  of  the  country.  The 
Brothers  are  eminently  practical ;  they  thoroughly  com¬ 
prehend  the  spirit  and  genius  of  the  American  mind ;  and 
they  so  ‘teach  their  pupils,  of  whatever  class,  rich  or  poor, 
as  to  suit  them  to  the  position  they  are  to  occupy  in  life. 

Perhaps  the  truest  proof  of  the  religious  influence  which 
they  exercise  over  their  pupils  is  this — that  wherever  they 
are  any  time  established  the  Bishop .  of  the  diocese  has  less 
difficulty  in  procuring  candidates  for  the  ministry.  They 
themselves  are  examples  of  self-denial  and  devotedness. 
All  men  of  intelligence,  many  full  of  energy  and  genius 
— all  capable  of  pushing  their  way  in  some  one  walk  of 
life  or  other — not  a  few  certain  to  have  risen  to  eminence 

in  the  higher  departments,  had  they  dedicated  themselves 

22 


50G 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


to  tlie  world  and  its  pursuits ;  living  a  life  almost  of 
privation,  content  witli  the  barest  pittance — what  will,  in 
fact,  afford  them  the  merest  means  of  existence — the 
Brothers  labour  in  their  glorious  vocation  with  a  zeal  and 
enthusiasm  which  religion  can  alone  inspire  or  alone  ex¬ 
plain.  To  the  mind  of  generous  youth  the  ambition  of 
rising  in  the  world  is  natural  and  laudable,  and  in  a  new 
and  vast  country  like  America,  and  under  a  constitution 
which  throws  open  the  path  of  distinction  to  merit  or  to 
courage,  the  world  offers  too  many  tempting  attractions 
to  be  resisted  by  the  young  and  the  ardent.  Hence  there 
is  a  constant  complaint  on  the  part  of  Bishops  of  the  want 
of  c  vocations  ’  for  the  priesthood.  Indeed  the  latest  ut¬ 
terance  on  this  subject,  at  once  the  gravest  and  most 
authoritative,  proceeds  from  the  Second  Plenary  Council  of 
Baltimore.  The  Bishops  say  : — 

‘  We  continue  to  feel  the  want  of  zealous  priests,  in  sufficient 
number  to  supply  the  daily  increasing  necessities  of  our  dioceses. 
While  we  are  gratified  to  know  that  in  some  parts  of  our  country 
the  number  of  youths  who  offer  themselves  for  the  Ecclesiastical 
state  is  rapidly  increasing,  we  are  obliged  to  remark  that  in  other 
parts,  notwithstanding  all  the  efforts  and  sacrifices  which  have  been 
made  for  this  object,  and  the  extraordinary  encouragements  which 
have  been  held  out  to  youthful  aspirants  to  the  ministry  in  our 
Preparatory  and  Theological  Seminaries,  the  number  of  such  as  have 
presented  themselves  and  persevered  in  their  vocations  has  hitherto 
been  lamentably  small.  Whatever  may  be  the  cause  of  this  un¬ 
willingness  to  enter  the  sacred  ministry  on  the  part  of  our  youth,  it 
cannot  be  attributed  to  any  deficiency  of  ours  in  such  efforts  as  cir¬ 
cumstances  have  enabled  us  to  make.  We  fear  that  the  fault  lies,  in 
great  part,  with  many  parents,  who,  instead  of  fostering  the  desire, 
bo  natural  to  the  youthful  heart,  of  dedicating  itself  to  the  service  of 
God’s  sanctuary,  but  too  often  impart  to  their  children  their  own 
worldly-mindedness,  and  seek  to  influence  their  choice  of  a  state  of 
life  by  unduly  exaggerating  the  difficulties  and  dangers  of  the  priestly 
calling,  and  painting  in  too  glowing  colours  the  advantage  of  a  secular 
life, 

Tlie  £  some  parts  ’  referred  to  in  the  Pastoral  Letter, 
may  signify  those  places  in  which  the  best  provision  has 


OTHER  TEACHING  ORDERS. 


507 


I^ogii  made  for  religious  teaching,  including  those  in  which 
the  Christian  Brothers  have  established  their  schools,  and 
have  had  time  to  exercise  their  influence  on  the  mind  and 
heart  of  youth.  It  has  been  remarked  that  the  influence 
of  their  teaching  is  not  alone  manifested  in  their  own  im¬ 
mediate  pupils  ;  but  that  many  young  men  who  have  never 
frequented  their  schools,  have  felt  themselves  impelled  to 
a  religious  life  by  the  example  of  a  friend  or  companion 
educated  by  the  Brothers.  Here  then  are  grand  results  of 
the  successful  labours  of  this  Order :  youth  fitted  to  make 
its  way  in  the  world,  and  fortified  by  the  best  influences, 
if  not  wholly  to  resist,  at  least  not  to  be  a  willing  victim 
to  its  temptations  ;  and  young  of  higher  and  nobler  pur¬ 
pose  induced  to  sacrifice  the  glittering  attractions  of  the 
world,  for  the  self-denying  and  laborious  life  of  the  mis¬ 
sionary  priest. 

The  Third  Order  of  St.  Francis  is  rapidly  growing  in 
strength  and  usefulness  in  the  United  States.  It  comprises 
Priests,  Brothers,  Sisters,  whose  ordinary  avocation  is  the 
training  of  youth  of  both  sexes,  and  ministering  to  the 
sick  and  poor  in  hospitals.  To  the  Archdiocese  of  Tuam, 
Ireland,  the  Catholic  church  of  America  is  indebted  for 
the  Brothers  of  this  Order,  who  have  established  several 
communities,  and  conduct  with  great  advantage  academies 
and  parochial  schools  in  various  dioceses.  In  1847,  Bishop 
O’Connor,  of  Pittsburg,*  obtained  six  brothers,  who  founded 
some  communities  of  the  Order  in  his  diocese,  the  principal 
of  which  is  Loretto,  containing  about  forty  brothers,  who 
ionduct  an  extensive  college  in  that  city.  This  was  the 
origin  of  this  Order  in  the  United  States.  In  1858,  Bishop 
Loughlin  of  Brooklyn  applied  to  the  Archbishop  of  Tuam 
for  Brothers,  and  obtained  two  ;  and  in  the  diocese  of 

*  Ous  of  the  most  accomplished  and  zealous  of  the  Catholic  bishops  of 
America,  who  did  great  things  for  the  Church,  but  who— compelled  by  ill-health 
to  surrender  his  diocese  to  other  hands — is  now  a  simple  Jesuit.  He  is  loved 
and  esteemed  by  ail  who  know  him;  the  writer  venturing  to  include  himself 
among  the  number  of  those  who  regard  this  good  man  with  sentiments  of 
affection  and  esteem. 


508 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


Brooklyn  there  are  now  about  thirty  of  the  brotherhood, 
conducting  academies  and  parochial  schools  which  are 
largely  attended.  They  have  opened  a  mission  in  Los 
Angelos,  California,  for  the  last  four  years ;  they  have 
founded  another  in  Elizabeth  Port,  New  Jersey  ;  and  this 
year  they  have  established  a  branch  in  Erie,  Pennsylvania. 
Thus  has  the  good  seed  from  the  old  Catholic  country 
fructified  in  this  new  domain  of  the  Church. 

As  the  educational  necessities  of  Catholics  increase,  so  in 
the  same  or  a  greater  proportion  does  the  Church  display 
greater  zeal  and  greater  energy  to  supply  the  want.  New 
Orders  are  constantly  springing  up  for  new  fields  of  spirit¬ 
ual  and  intellectual  labour.  Thus  the  Congregation  of  the 
Holy  Cross,  founded  in  France  in  1858,  and  approved  by 
the  Holy  See  in  1857,  has  established  several  flourishing 
educational  institutions  in  the  United  States ;  its  teaching 
ranging  from  the  simplest  elementary  instruction,  up  to 
the  very  highest  standard  of  collegiate  requirements.  The 
Priests,  who  are  called  Salvatorists,  from  being  specially 
consecrated  to  the  Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus,  devote  themselves 
exclusively  to  missions  and  the  education  of  youth.  The 
Brothers  are  devoted  to  the  great  work  of  religious  in¬ 
struction,  with  which,  according  to  the  circumstances  and 
the  necessities  of  their  pupils,  is  combined  practical  training 
in  various  branches  of  industry.  The  Sisters,  who  are  con¬ 
secrated  to  the  Sacred  Heart  of  Mary,  educate  female  youth 
of  all  classes  of  society,  and  are  also  employed  in  hospitals 
and  asylums.  The  Sisters  already  number  more  than  250 
in  the  States. 

Among  the  most  prominent  structures  in  New  Orleans 
are  the  great  schools  conducted  by  the  Redemptorist 
Fathers  of  that  city;  and  among  these  good  men  is  one  - 
all  zeal,  all  energy,  all  ardour — whose  name  is  venerated 
in  the  South.  Father  Sheeran  was  one  of  the  most  de¬ 
voted,  not  to  say  one  of  the  bravest,  of  the  Chaplains  of 
the  Southern  army.  As  cool  under  fire  as  the  oldest  cam- 


FROM  THE  CAMP  TO  TIIE  SCHOOL. 


509 


paigner,  one  glance  from  Father  Sheeran’s  eye  would  send 
the  waverer  dashing  to  the  front.  And  now  that,  happily, 
the  sword  is  returned  to  the  scabbard,  and  the  generous 
of  North  and  South  can  meet  again  as  brethren,  if  not  as 
friends,  Father  Sheeran  is,  with  his  fellow-priests,  actively 
engaged,  indeed  almost  wholly  engrossed,  in  the  noble 
work  of  Christian  education  ;  which  he  and  they  promote 
with  such  success,  that  1,400  children — the  children  chiefly 
of  Irish  parents — are  educated  in  such  a  manner  as  to  elicit 
the  warmest  and  most  elaborate  praise  from  Protestant 
journalists.  New  Orleans  possesses  several  important 
educational  institutions,  academical  and  parochial ;  but 
that  of  the  Redemptorists  is  remarkable  because  of  the 
well-known  career  of  the  famous  Chaplain  of  the  14th 
Louisiana  Regiment. 


510 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 


Juvenile  Reformation — Opposition  to  Catholic  Reformatories — 
The  two  Systems  Illustrated — Christianity  Meek  and  Loving — 
The  Work  of  the  Enemy — Solemn  Appeals  to  Catholic  Duty. 


IN  their  various  institutions  for  the  protection  and  re¬ 
formation  of  juveniles,  the  Americans  are  keeping 
pace  with  the  enlightened  spirit  of  European  progress. 
They  wisely  believe  that  prevention  is  less  expensive  than 
cure — that,  whatever  their  apparent  costliness,  precaution 
and  prevention  are  certain  to  be  in  the  end  more  econo¬ 
mical  and  more  useful  than  punishment.  They  hold,  with 
all  sensible  men  from  the  days  of  Solomon  to  our  own, 
that  it  is  easier  to  incline  the  twig  than  bend  the  tree— 
to  direct  the  small  stream  into  the  right  channel,  than 
to  deal  with  the  swollen  torrent ;  that  if  vice  is  to  be 
effectually  suppressed  or  diminished,  you  must  begin  with 
the  beginning.  This  is  the  belief  and  the  policy  of  every 
really  enlightened  man  or  woman  of  the  Old  World  or  the 
New.  In  this  spirit  was  founded  the  Colony  of  Mettray, 
in  France,  and  the  juvenile  reformatory  of  the  Vigna  Pia 
in  Rome,  which,  some  ten  years  since,  I  beheld  in  active 
and  successful  operation.  It  is  in  the  same  spirit  that  the 
Catholic  Church,  now  as  in  former  ages,  in  America  as  in 
Europe,  gathers  under  her  sheltering  wing  the  orphan, 
and  the  ‘  half-orphan,’  or  the  child  in  danger  of  ruin.  The 
calendar  of  the  Church  is  resplendant  with  the  names  of 
men  and  women  whose  lives  have  been  devoted  to  the 


•JUVENILE  REFORMATION. 


611 


sacred  duty  which  modern  philanthropists  and  social 
reformers  are  imitating  at  a  long  distance. 

Unfortunately  for  the  success  of  the  Catholics  of 
America  in  this  great  work  of  juvenile  reformation,  theii 
resources,  at  least  hitherto,  have  not  been  equal  to  meet 
the  evils  arising  from  orphanage,  or  from  the  poverty,  the 
neglect,  or  the  viciousness  of  parents.  Thus  a  wide  field 
was  left  of  necessity  to  those  of  a  different  communion  * 
but  it  is  much  to  be  deplored  that  the  opportunity  of  doing- 
good  was  not  always  availed  of  in  the  right  spirit,  and 
that  the  gratification  of  achieving  an  unworthy  triumph 
over  a  rival  sect  was  preferred  to  the  purer  delight  of 
discharging  a  holy  duty  in  the  spirit  of  Christian  charity. 
In  some  few  cases  the  work  of  reformation  was  taken  up 
in  the  right  spirit — in  a  spirit  of  noble  charity,  and  in  the 
loftiest  sense  of  justice  to  one’s  neighbour ;  but,  alas  for 
poor  fallible  human  nature  !  in  too  many  instances  it  was 
entered  upon  as  much  from  a  motive  of  active  hostility,  as 
from  a  desire  to  grapple  with  a  social  evil  of  admitted  mag¬ 
nitude  and  danger.  No  Catholic  —  especially  no  Irish 
Catholic — could  be  insensible  to  the  scandalous  nature  of 
the  war  which,  under  the  mask  of  benevolence  and  philan¬ 
thropy,  was  waged  against  the  children  of  poverty  and  the 
victims  of  neglect.  But,  until  lately,  whether  from  want  of 
organisation,  lack  of  means,  or  the  urgency  of  other  claims, 
little  was  done,  save  through  religious  institutions,  to 
resist  the  fierce  assault  or  the  insidious  approach  of  the 
proselytiser.  In  the  Pastoral  Letter  of  the  Second  Plenary 
Council  of  Baltimore,  the  Bishops  of  the  American  Church 
thus  refer  to  this  question  of  vital  moment  : — 

It  is  a  melancholy  fact,  and  a  very  humiliating  avowal  for  us  to 
make,  that  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  idle  and  vicious  youth  of 
our  principal  cities  are  the  children  of  Catholic  parents.  Whether 
from  poverty  or  neglect,  the  ignorance  in  which  so  many  parents  are 
involved  as  to  the  true  nature  of  education,  and  of  their  duties  as 
Christian  parents,  or  the  associations  which  our  youth  so  easily  form 
with  those  who  encourage  them  to  disregard  parental  admonition  : 


512 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


certain  it  is,  that  a  large  number  of  Catholic  parents  either  appear  to 
have  no  idea  of  the  sanctity  of  the  Christian  family,  and  of  the  re« 
sponsibility  imposed  on  them  of  providing  for  the  moral  training  of 
their  offspring,  or  fulfil  this  duty  in  a  very  imperfect  manner.  Day 
after  day,  these  unhappy  children  are  caught  in  the  commission  of 
petty  crimes,  which  render  them  amenable  to  the  public  authorities  ; 
and,  day  after  day,  are  they  transferred  by  hundreds  from  the 
sectarian  reformatories  in  which  they  have  been  placed  by  the  courts, 
to  distant  localities,  where  they  are  brought  up  in  ignorance  of,  and 
most  commonly  in  hostility  to,  the  Religion  in  which  they  have  been 
baptised.  The  only  remedy  for  this  great  and  daily  augmenting  evil 
is  to  provide  Catholic  Protectories  or  Industrial  Schools,  to  which 
such  children  may  be  sent ;  and  where,  under  the  only  influence  that  is 
known  to  have  really  reached  the  roots  of  vice,  the  youthful  culprit  may 
cease  to  do  evil  and  learn  to  do  good. 

Practical  efforts  have  been  made  to  meet  the  evil ;  and 
in  the  cities  of  New  York,  Boston,  and  Baltimore,  institu¬ 
tions  for  the  protection  and  reformation  of  criminal  or 
destitute  children  have  been  formed,  and,  though  but  a 
short  time  in  existence,  are  working  with  marked  success, 
with  the  approval  of  every  liberal-minded  Protestant  of 
those  great  centres  of  American  civilisation.  The  dignified 
and  praiseworthy  attitude  taken  by  Catholics,  in  their 
efforts  to  protect  the  faith  of  helpless  little  ones  of  their 
own  communion,  and  relieve  themselves  from  a  cause  of 
the  gravest  reproval,  excited  a  storm  of  opposition  from 
those  who  had  much  rather  know  that  Catholics  deserted 
their  duty,  and  thus  afforded  their  enemies  the  continued 
power  of  injuring  the  right  of  despising  them. 

*  In  obtaining  our  charter/  say  the  conductors  of  the 
New  York  institution,  of  which  the  late  Dr.  Ives,  a  distin¬ 
guished  convert,  was  president,  ‘  we  had  to  struggle  against 
two  objections,  urged  with  surprising  zeal  and  pertinacity. 
The  first,  that  ample  provision  for  vicious  and  destitute 
children  had  already  been  made  by  the  State,  and  that  an 
increase  would  only  tend  to  injure  the  existing  institutions. 
The  second,  that  these  institutions  were  organised  on  the 
fairest  and  most  liberal  basis,  by  excluding  all  distinctive 


OPPOSITION  TO  CATHOLIC  REFORMATORIES. 


51  a 


religion  ;  while  the  one  whose  incorporation  we  sought  was 
professedly  sectarian  in  its  character,  being  placed  under 
the  exclusive  control  of  Catholics/  To  the  first  objection 
they  pleaded,  what  has  since  been  fully  admitted,  the 
enormous  magnitude  of  the  evil,  and  the  inadequacy  of 
existing  means  to  meet  it ;  and  to  the  second,  that  if  the 
State  had  shown  its  fairness  and  liberality  only  by  ex¬ 
cluding,  in  fact,  all  distinctive  religion  from  its  institutions, 
it  was  high  time  that  one  institution,  at  least,  should 
be  organised  on  a  different  basis  ;  should  professedly  and 
really  make  distinctive  religion  its  actuating  and  control¬ 
ling  power,  as  nothing  short  of  this  could  so  sway  the  hearts 
of  children  as  to  make  them,  in  the  end,  good  Christians 
and  good  men.  The  absolute  falsehood,  in  fact,  of  the 
second  objection  is  thus  torn  to  shreds  in  the  Report  : — 

But  the  question  was  put: — ‘  Has  the  State  succeeded  in  exclud¬ 
ing  from  its  institutions  all  distinctive  religion,  and  all  sectarian 
teaching  and  influence?  Inquire  at  11  The  Juvenile  Asylum,”  “  The 
House  of  Refuge,”  “The  Children’’ s  Aid  Society,”  u  The  Five  Points 
House  of  Industry.”  Is  not  the  Protestant  religion  inculcated  in  these 
institutions,  and  only  the  Catholic  religion  excluded?  Where,  among 
the  managers  of  all  these  institutions,  is  a  Catholic  to  be  found? 
Where,  among  their  superintendents,  their  teachers,  their  preachers, 
do  you  find  a  Catholic?  Where  among  their  acts  of  worship  is  a 
Catholic  act  tolerated?  While,  on  the  other  hand,  who  does  nol 
know,  that  Protestant  worship,  in  all  its  various  forms,  is,  without 
opposition,  introduced?  And  Protestant  doctrine,  in  all  its  shades 
and  contradictions,  is  inculcated?  Indeed,  we  did  not  find  it  necessary 
to  debate  this  question.  Protestant  periodicals  not  only  admitted  but 
gloried  in  the  facts.  They  boasted  that  the  State  is  Protestant  in  all 
her  institutions,  and  that  it  is  an  act  of  great  indulgence  on  her  part, 
that  Catholicity  is  allowed  to  exist  at  all ;  that  we,  as  Catholics, 
should  be  grateful  that  the  power  of  the  State  has  not  been  invoked 
to  arrest  our  progress  and  put  an  end  to  our  institutions.  Can  it, 
therefore,  we  enquired,  be  thought  unreasonable,  while  such  a  spirit, 
actuates  the  Protestant  community,  that  Catholic  parents  should  be 
averse  to  give  up  their  children  to  Protestant  institutions  ;  to  institutions, 
where  Protestant  dogmas  and  practices  are  enforced  upon  them;  and 
where  they  are  compelled  to  study  books  and  listen  to  addresses  in  which 
the  religion  of  their  fathers  is  reviled?  We  pressed  the  inquiry  furtner, 


614 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


and  asked :  Whether  it  was  wise  and  statesman-like  to  inti  ftduce  a  system 
of  compulsion,  where  the  rights  of  conscience  are  concerned?  Where 
the  faith  of  Catholic  parents  is  outraged  by  forcing  Catholic  children 
into  Protestant  asylums?  Whether  peace  and  contentment  in  the 
community  are  likely  to  be  the  result  of  such  a  system  ?  ’  This  was 
the  line  of  argument  addressed  to  the  Legislature,  which,  against 
violent  opposition,  granted  our  charter. 

One  passage  from, the  Report  deserves  special  approval ; 
and  were  the  example  which  it  offers  generally  adopted, 
there  would  remain  but  little  cause  for  anger  or  contention  : 
‘A  few  children  belonging  to  parents  not  Catholics  have 
been  sent  to  us  by  the  Courts.  In  such  cases  the  children 
are  received,  if  the  parents  or  guardians  so  request.  If 
they  object ,  the  children  are  returned  to  the  magistrate.  No 
interference  is  allowed  with  the  religious  tenets  of  non- 
Catholics  employed  at  the  Protectory.’ 

One  of  the  institutions  referred  to  in  the  foregoing  Re¬ 
port  is  the  ‘New  York  Juvenile  Society.’  In  its  Report 
for  1863,  there  is  a  table  stating  the  ‘Religious  instruc¬ 
tion  previous  to  commitment ;  ’  and  the  result  for  ten 
years,  from  1853  to  the  date  of  publication,  is  as  follows  : 
4  Roman  Catholics,  5,210  ;  Protestants,  3,933  ;  Jewish,  67  ; 
Unknown,  256 — Total,  9,467.’  So  that  the  Catholics  were 
in  a  considerable  majority  of  the  whole.  Now,  what  be¬ 
came  of  these  5,210  Catholic  children,  in  an  institution  in 
which,  as  the  Catholics  of  New  York  stated  before  the 
Legislature,  no  Catholic  manager,  superintendent,  teacher, 
or  preacher,  is  tolerated,  and  from  which  the  Catholic 
religion  is  the  only  one  excluded  ?  In  page  9  of  the  same 
Report,  we  find  these  words  : — 

‘  The  benefits  of  the  course  of  training  and  education  pursued  in  the 
institution  is  seen,  not  only  in  the  improved  character  of  the  children 
returned  to  their  parents,  but  also  in  that  of  those  sent  to  the  West.  To 
how  many  children  has  been  opened  there  a  bright  and  prosperous 
future!  Scattered  among  the  farm-houses  of  Illinois,  they  are  mem¬ 
bers  of  comfortable  households,  many  of  them  adopted  as  sons  and 
daughters,  and  all  in  a  land  where  competence  is  within  the  reach  of 
all,  especially  of  those  who  begin  there  with  an  education  fully  equal 
to  that  of  the  average  of  the  farmer’s  children  among  whom  they 
dwell,  and  with  whom  they  are  prepared  to  keep  pace.’ 


T1IE  TWO  SYSTEMS  ILLUSTRATED. 


615 


It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  enquire  Low  many  of  the 
5,210  Catholic  children  were  ‘returned  to  their  parents,’ 
and  how  many  were  ‘sent  to  the  West.’  It  may  be  re¬ 
marked  that  the  ‘Juvenile  Asylum  ’  is  only  one  of  many 
similar  institutions.  Another  extract  from  the  Report  is 

i. 

most  suggestive  : — 

‘  But  not  the  least  valuable  and  interesting  proofs  of 
success  are  the  letters  received  from  our  young  Emigrants 
in  their  new  spheres.  These  letters  are  often  full  of  filial 
love  and  gratitude  to  the  teachers ,  who  have  been  to  them 
as  parents,  and  under  whose  kind  care  and  guidance  they 
had  their  first  experience  of  a  happy  life/ 

There  is  no  word  here  of  the  parent,  possibly  the  widow 
of  an  Irish  soldier  who  died  fighting  in  defence  of  the 
CJnion,  and  whose  boy  got  beyond  her  maternal  control. 
But  in  a  letter  published  in  the  transactions  of  another 
Association — the  ‘  Children’s  Aid  Society  ’  of  Baltimore — 
the  following  production  of  a  poor  perverted  child  is 
strangely  published.  It  is  here  given  as  it  appears  in  the 
twenty-sixth  page  of  the  Report  for  1865  : — 

‘  TKAXSFEKRED.’ 

‘  When  my  father  and  my  mother  forsake  me,  then  the  Lord  will  take 

me  up.’ 

‘Mr.  Pai.mkii  July  22nd,  18G6, 

‘  Respected  Friend. 

‘  I  have  been  thinking  of  writing  too  you  for  some  time,  i  am  well 
and  i  hope  you  are  the  same  i  like  my  home  very  much  i  went  to 
school  four  months  last  winter  and  had  lots  of  fun,  i  had  two  slay 
rides  i  would  not  be  back  to  Mr.  V/s  for  any  money  the  country  is 
beautiful  up  hear  we  have  plenty  of  black  berries,  like  the  country 
better  than  the  city,  idont  care  to  know  of  my  parents  for  i  am  better 
off  without  knowing,  philip  and  george  are  well  they  are  both  happy 
and  enjoy  themselves  very  mutch  in  the  country  we  wold  all  of  us 
like  to  see  you  very  mutch  come  see  us  soon  as  you  can.  Philip  lives 
in  the  same  house  that  i  do  and  George  lives  right  across  the  road 
Mrs.  C  has  a  nice  little  boy  only  two  years  old  i  love  him  very  mutch 
i  beleavc  I  have  told  you  all  at  present. 

M.’ 


518 


THE  IIUSII  IN  AMERICA. 


As  a  contrast  to  the  teaching  which,  whatever  the  inten¬ 
tion,  had  the  effect  of  inducing  a  wretched  child  to  write 
that  odious  sentence — ‘i  dont  care  to  know  of  my  ftarents 
for  i  am  better  off  without  knowing’ — may  be  quoted  an 
extract  from  the  first  year’s  Report  of  the  Association 
established  in  Boston  for  the  protection  of  Catholic  child¬ 
ren.  It  will  commend  itself  to  the  mind  of  the  Christian 
and  the  heart  of  the  parent 

Next  to  their  duty  to  Almighty  God,  the  children  are  taught  to 
have  regard  to  that  which  they  owe  to  their  parents.  Even  under 
the  old  Law,  God  not  only  commanded,  as  a  duty  of  eternal  obliga¬ 
tion,  that  children  ‘honour  and  succour  their  father  and  mother,’  but 
pronounced  a  fearful  curse  upon  such  as  refused  to  comply !  While 
it  is  a  notorious  fact,  that  in  His  providence,  all  those  countries  which 
are  characterised  by  a  neglect  of  this  command  are  sunk  to  the  lowest 
degradation;  and  that  just  in  proportion  as  a  nation  becomes  truly 
civilised,  on  the  basis  of  Christianity,  are  the  domestic  relations  ele¬ 
vated  and  strengthened. 

It  has,  therefore,  been  a  matter  of  deep  solicitude  with  the  Mana¬ 
gers,  so  to  discharge  their  duty  as  that  children  may  not  be  alienated 
from  their  parents ,  or  led  to  forget  or  disregard  their  obligations  to 
them.  Hence  in  all  those  cases  where  children  of  parents  able  to 
support  them  have  been  committed  for  the  minor  offences,  we  insist 
upon  returning  them  so  soon  as,  in  our  judgment,  it  can  safely  be  done. 
In  regard  to  many  of  this  class  of  young  delinquents,  a  few  weeks 
of  strict  but  kind  discipline  is  found  as  effectual  in  subduing  their 
tempers  and  restoring  a  spirit  of  filial  obedience,  as  a  much  longer 
period. 

This  will  account  for  the  number  which  have  already  been  dis¬ 
charged  and  sent  home  to  their  family. 

The  benefit  of  this  policy  is  two-fold :  it  tends  to  strengthen  the 
family  bond,  and  to  promote  the  essential  virtues  of  industry  and 
economy.  For  we  have  not  only  to  avoid  the  serious  evil  of  weaken¬ 
ing  the  family  tie  by  unnecessarily  separating  children  from  their 
parents,  but  also  to  guard  against,  what  is  hardly  less  pernicious,  the 
mischief  of  taking  away  from  these  parents  that  main  stimulus  to 
exertion,  the  necessity  of  providing  for  their  own  households. 

From  a  serial,  entitled  *  The  Little  Wanderer’ s  Friend  * 
much  information  may  de  derived  ;  valuable  as  indicating 
the  spirit  in  which  not  a  few  of  the  so-called  benevolent 


CHRISTIANITY  MEEK  AND  LOVING. 


517 


institutions  are  conducted,  and  the  numerical  extent  of 
their  operations.  From  the  number  for  May,  1865,  an 
interesting  paragraph  or  two  may  be  quoted,  in  illustration 
of  the  liberal  and  tolerant  spirit  of  those  institutions  of 
which  that  agreeable  little  publication  is  the  accredited 
organ.  A  pleasant  article,  entitled  ‘The  Heathen  of  New 
York,’  affords  the  writer  a  happy  theme  for  the  display 
of  his  national  feelings  and  religious  convictions.  ‘  The 
mass  of  the  population,’  the  writer  says,  ‘consists  of  the 
most  ignorant,  bigoted,  degraded  foreign  Catholics,  who 
know  no  higher  law  than  the  word  of  their  priests.  Their 
Christianity  is  mere  baptised  heathenism.’  Considering 
the  miserable  condition  in  which  the  mass  of  the  popu¬ 
lation  are  found  by  the  writer,  it  is  fortunate  that  spiritual 
succour  is  so  near ;  for  we  have  this  consolatory  assurance 
in  the  same  article: — ‘We  are  in  the  midst  of  it.  Our 
‘  mission  is  in  front  of  one  of  their  large  churches — under 
‘  the  shadow  of  their  cross.  They  listen  to  our  songs, 
‘  while  we  witness  their  idolatry.  They  curse  while  we 
‘  gather  in  the  children ,  teach  them  the  truth,  feed,  clothe, 
‘  and  send  them  to  land  Christian  homes'  The  mission¬ 
aries,  of  whom  the  writer  is  the  faithful  organ  and  elo¬ 
quent  mouthpiece,  are  not  content  with  their  limited 
sphere  of  action  in  front  of  one  of  the  large  churches  of 
the  ‘  baptised  heathen  ’  of  New  York :  they  must  even 
meet  them  on  the  shore,  or  on  the  ship’s  deck  ;  and  thus, 
if  they  cannot  arrest  the  in-flowing  tide  of  emigration,  at 
least,  by  extending  the  hand  of  brotherly  love  and  the 
word  of  God  to  their  poor  misguided  brethren  who  cross 
the  ocean,  convert  it  into  a  deluge  of  enriching  blessedness. 
‘  Last  year  155,223  persons  landed  here  from  Europe,  of 
‘  whom  92,861  were  from  poor,  ignorant,  bigoted,  Catholic- 
‘  cursed  Ireland.’  In  this  manner  these  unhappy  heathens 
are  to  be  spiritually  regenerated  :  ‘  Let  us  meet  them  ere 

‘  they  leave  the  ship,  and  extend  to  them  the  kind  hand 
‘  and  the  word  of  God.  They  are  our  misguided  brothers, 


518 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


‘Let  us  be  kind  and  teach  them  the  truth.  Let  us  help 
‘  the  needy  and  teach  them  the  truth.  Let  us  gather  the 
‘  children  in.’  The  children  are  always  the  objects  of 
the  pious  solicitude  of  these  apostolic  missionaries  ;  they 
first  gather  them  in,  and  they  then  send  them  to  ‘kind 
Christian  homes,’  in  which  all  memory  of  their  former 
‘  heathenism  ’  is  lost.  The  success  of  their  operations  is 
thus  detailed  in  their  own  words  : — 

The  Home  for  the  Friendless 

Led  olf  in  this  work,  and  for  about  thirty  years  lias  opened  its  arras 
and  embraced  perishing  infancy  and  neglected  childhood  !  But  how 
little  has  it  done  compared  with  the  work  yet  remaining!  Encouraged 
by  its  success,  a  few  warm-hearted  Methodist  ladies  organised  the 


Five  Points  Mission. 

They  entered  the  ‘gates  of  hell’  to  save  the  perishing;  and  a 
glorious  monument  to  Christianity  has  been  erected.  Steadily, 
earnestly,  and  successfully  do  they  labour,  but  want,  sin,  and  woe 
increase  around  them. 

The  Five  Points  House  of  Industry. 

Was  originated  in  1851  by  Rev.  Mr.  Pease,  and  ‘its  fame  has  gone 
throughout  the  country.’  After  years  of  struggling  he  was  compelled 
to  seek  quiet  and  rest.  Mr.  Barlow  took  his  place,  and,  with  an 
earnestness  which  sought  to  imitate  Him,  concerning  whom  it  was 
said  ‘  the  zeal  of  thine  house  hath  eaten  me  up,’  he  laboured  until 
called  to  exchange — ‘sowing  in  tears’  for  ‘reaping  in  joy’ — to  give 
up  his  abode  in  ‘  Cow  Bay  ’  for  the  ‘  place  ’  which  Jesus  said ‘I  go  to 
prepare  for  you.’  Each  year  the  work  increases,  and,  although  since 
1851  over  11,000  have  come  under  their  care ,  many  of  whom  have  been 
saved,  yet,  to  a  stranger,  it  seems  as  if  Christianity  had  done  nothing. 

The  Children’s  Aid  Society, 

Under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Brace,  with  its  Industrial  Schools — 
lodging  rooms— boys’  meetings — has  gathered  i/i  and  sent  to  homes  more 
children  than  any  other  institution  in  the  world  during  the  last  eight  or 
nine  years,  yet  a  stranger  eouhl  not  perceive  a  ripple  upon  the  surface 
of  this  sea  of  sin  and  want. 


THE  WORK  OF  THE  ENEMY. 


fill 


Our  Own  Work. 

Has  been  so  constantly  kept  before  the  public  that  it  seems  almost 
useless  to  speak  of  it.  Four  years  ago  this  Home  for  Litile  Wanderers 
was  opened,  and  nearly  1,000  children  gathered  in  the  first  year.  The 
next  year  1,221,  and  the.  last  year  1,543. 

With  such  success  attending  their  efforts,  the  reader 
will  learn  without  astonishment  that  these  modern  Apostles 
to  the  Gfentiles  are  not  discouraged ;  they  only  want  more 
faithful  praying  Sunday  School  teachers,  and  four  more 
earnest  Christian  men  as  Missionaries.  c  Our  hands  are 
‘  tied,’  cries  the  figurative  yet  eminently  practical  organ 
of  the  Mission.  ‘ Four  hundred  and  fifty  cords  bind 
‘  us.  Reader  will  you  cut  one  of  them  ?  We  mean,  will 
‘  you  be  one  of  the  450  who  will  give  or  collect  from  your 
‘  Sunday  School  or  friends,  and  send  us  $1  per  week  until 
‘  May  18G6,  and  thus  leave  us  free  from  all  pecuniary 
‘  anxiety,  and  with  nothing  to  do  but  to  gather  the 
‘  children  in.’ 

It  has  been  computed  that,  at  a  low  calculation,  30,000 
children  of  Catholic  parents,  mostly  Irish,  have  been  sent 
to  ‘  kind  Christian  homes,’  through  ‘  Sectarian  Reform¬ 
atories,’  and  institutions  of  a  kindred  spirit.  I  have 
heard  50,000  given  as  a  possible  average  ;  and  considering 
that  one  institution  lately  boasted  of  having  sent  10,000 
Catholic  children  to  the  West,  the  number,  though  great, 
is  not  altogether  improbable.  Children  are  at  a  premium 
in  the  West,  especially  if  healthy  and  robust  ;  and  dealing 
in  this  description  of  ‘  live  stock  ’  is  not  by  any  means  a 
losing  speculation.  I  was  confidently  informed  that  thirty 
children — one  a  plump  infant  of  a  year  and-a-lialf — had 
been  sold,  in  Michigan,  to  the  highest  bidder,  not  two 
years  previous  to  the  time  at  which  the  circumstance  was 
mentioned  to  me.  The  children  must  be  disposed  of  in 
one  way  or  other  ;  and  if  a  profit  can  be  made  for  the 
institution,  or  for  ihe  individual,  through  the  keen  rivalry 


520 


TI1E  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


of  Wester  a  farmers,  who  look  approving!}  at  the  sturdy 
thews  and  sinews  and  strong  limbs  of  a  brawny  young 
‘  heathen  ’  of  Irish  birth  or  blood,  who  can  be  uncon¬ 
scionable  enough  to  object  to  an  operation  so  legitimate, 
in  accordance  with  the  entire  system  of — kid¬ 
napping  may  be  too  rude  a  term  to  apply  to  such  institu¬ 
tions  and  such  men, — so  we  shall  say,  of  gathering  little 
children  in  ? 

Whatever  this  system  may  be  to  those  engaged  in  it — a 
system,  we  may  remark,  totally  repugnant  to  the  spirit  of 
modern  legislation  in  this  country,  where  there  are  indus¬ 
trial  and  reformatory  institutions  purposely  denomin¬ 
ational  in  character,  with  the  view  of  protecting  the  faith 
of  the  most  helpless  class  of  the  community — its  longer 
tolerance  by  the  Catholics  of  America,  and  in  a  special 
manner  by  those  of  Irish  birth  or  descent,  would  be  in  the 
last  degree  shameful  and  discreditable.  Allowance  must 
be  made  for  the  difficulties  of  their  position  hitherto,  owing 
to  the  many  claims  upon  their  means,  and  the  various 

works  which  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Catholic  Church  to 

«/ 

undertake  ;  but  they  are  now  too  numerous,  too  powerful, 
and  too  influential,  to  submit  to  the  continuance  of  that 
which  is  degrading  to  them  as  Catholics,  and  deeply  dis¬ 
honouring  to  them  as  Irishmen.  There  can  be  no  mincing 
terms  as  to  what  is  their  manifest  duty.  The  past,  writh 
all  its  bitterness  and  shame,  is  irrevocable  ;  but  there  is 
the  present  as  well  as  the  future,  and  if  they  cannot  restore 
the  faith  to  those  who  have  lost  it — not  through  the 

o 

worthiest  or  most  honourable  means — they  should  at  least 
take  care  themselves  to  gather  in,  under  the  shelter  of  the 
Church,  the  miserable  victims  of  poverty,  neglect,  and 
vice,  and  restore  them  to  society  as  good  Christians  and 
useful  citizens.  The  wide  influence  of  Catholic  Schools 
will  do  much  to  counteract  the  evil ;  but  the  general 
imitation  of  the  good  work  so  auspiciously  commenced  in 
New  York,  and  Boston,  and  Baltimore,  will  prove  the 


or  so  strictly 


SOLEMN  APPEALS  TO  CATHOLIC  DUTY. 


521 


readiest  and  most  direct  means  of  redeeming  the  honour 
of  the  Catholics  of  America  ;  at  the  same  time  affording 
benevolent  people  of  other  communities  an  undisturbed 
opportunity  of  attending  to  their  own  criminal  or  destitute 
children. 

The  Pastoral  Letter  of  the  Plenary  Council  of  1860, 
thus  refers  to  this  subject : — - 

We  rejoice  that  in  some  of  our  dioceses — would  that  we  could  say 
in  all! — a  beginning  has  been  made  in  this  good  work,  and  we  cannot 
too  earnestly  exhort  our  Venerable  Brethren  of  the  Clergy  to  bring 
this  matter  before  their  respective  flocks,  to  endeavour  to  impress  on 
Christian  parents  the  duty  of  guarding  their  children  from  the  evils 
above  referred  to,  and  to  invite  them  to  make  persevering  and  effectual 
efforts  for  the  establishment  of  institutions  wherein,  under  the  influ¬ 
ence  of  religious  teachers,  the  waywardness  of  youth  may  be  corrected 
and  good  seed  planted  in  the  soil  in  which,  while  men  slept,  the  enemy 
had  sowed  tares. 

These  solemn  and  hopeful-  words,  addressed  to  a  Catholic 
audience  at  New  York,  in  1861,  by  the  late  Dr.  Ives — one 
of  the  most  illustrious  converts  to  the  Church  in  America, 
and  the  master-spirit  of  the  reformatory  movement — may 
be  listened  to  as  to  a  voice  from  the  tomb:  ‘But,  whatever 
the  State  may  do,  the  duty  of  Catholics  is  plain,  and  will 
be  done.  The  probability  of  failure  in  this  great  under¬ 
taking  cannot  be  admitted.  Dark  as  the  day  is,  and  heavy 
as  are  its  burdens,  Catholics  will  be  found  equal  to  them. 
The  work  in  our  hands  will  succeed ;  it  is  Clod’s  work — 
dictated  by  His  spirit,  demanded  by  His  providence, 
undertaken  in  His  name,  carried  on  in  His  strength  and 
or  His  glory.  I  feel  that  it  is  no  presumption  to  affirm 
that  it  will  not  fail/ 


522 


THE  IRISH  IX  AMERICA 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 


The  Second  Plenary  Council  of  Baltimore — Protestant  Tribute 
to  tbe  Catholic  Church — Progress  of  Catholicity — Instances  of 
its  Progress — The  Past  and  the  Present — The  Cnoreh  in  Chicago 
and  Xevr  York — Catholicity  in  Boston — Anacipahons  not  Real¬ 
ised — Number  of  Catholics  in  the  States — Circumstances  of 
Protestant  and  Catholic  Emigrant  Different — Loss  of  P -din  and 
Inditferentism. 


rthe  Second  Plenary  Council  of  Baltimore  the  Catholic 
Church  of  America  presented  a  singularly  grand  and 
imposing  spectacle.  Barely  has  Borne  herself  witnessed 
a  more  angnst  assembly,  and,  more  rarely  still,  one  so  re¬ 
markable  in  its  character.  Even  in  numbers — according  to 
Archbishop  Spalding,  its  venerable  President — it  was  the 
largest  ever  held  in  Christendom  since  the  Council  of  Trent, 
with  the  exception  of  two  or  three  held  at  Borne  under  the 
Sovereign  Pontiff!  But  though  this  assemblage  of  the 
Spiritual  Chiefs  of  this  young  and  vigorous  branch  of  the 
Universal  Church  consisted  of  seven  Archbishops,  thirty- 
eight  Bishops,  and  three  Mitred  Abbots — in  all  forty-nine 
Mitred  Prelates — it  was  more  remarkable  for  the  wisdom 
and  dignity,  and  weight  of  character,  of  the  learned  and 
able  men  of  whom  it  was  composed  :  and  still  more  so  for  the 
unbroken  unity  which  it  presented  in  so  brief  a  period  after 
the  termination  of  the  deadliest  straggle  that  ever  con¬ 
vulsed  a  country  or  rent  a  people  asunder.  The  wonderful 
progress  of  the  Church,  which  this  majestic  assembly  made 
manifest  even  to  the  dull  or  the  unbelieving,  was  a  subject 
of  surprise  to  friends  as  to  enemies ;  out  its  unbroken  unity, 
while  a  cause  of  confusion  to  some,  who  contrasted  with  it 
the  several  branches  of  their  own  distracted  churches,  war 


THE  SECOND  PLENARY  COUNCIL  OF  BALTIMORE.  523 
rewarded  without  astonishment  bv  those  who  either  under- 

o  «. 

stood  the  principles  of  Catholicity,  or  watched  the  conduct 
of  the  Church  during  the  war. 

Fourteen  Years  before,  the  First  Plenary  Council  of  Bal- 

Wr  *  « 

tiruore  was  held ;  since  then  there  had  been  added  to  the 
Catholic  hierarchy  one  Archbishop  and  fourteen  Bishops  ; 
and  now,  from  the  Second  Plenary  Council,  there  goes 
forth  an  appeal  to  Rome  for  the  creation  of  fourteen  addi¬ 
tional  Bishops !  In  the  Pastoral  Letter  they  say  :  ‘  We 

hare  also  recommended  to  the  HoIy  See  the  erection  of 

* 

several  additional  Episcopal  Sees,  and  Vicariates  Apostolic, 
v.  hich  are  made  necessary  by  our  rapidly  increasing  Catho¬ 
lic  population,  and  the  great  territorial  extent  of  many  of 
our  present  Dioceses.' 

Li  the  same  Pastoral,  the  progress  of  the  Church  is 
thus  indicated  :  ;  We  continue  to  have  great  consolation  in 
witnessing  the  advance  of  Religion  throughout  the  various 
dioceses,  as  shown  in  the  multiplication  and  improved 
architectural  character  of  our  churches,  the  increase  of 
piety  in  the  various  congregations,  and  the  numerous  con¬ 
versions  of  so  many  who  have  sacrificed  early  prejudices 
and  every  consideration  of  their  temporal  interests  and' 
human  feelings  at  the  shrine  of  Catholic  Truth.’ 

The  constitution  of  this  august  assembly  of  wise  and 
learned  men  is  not  without  interest,  even  as  affording 
a  further  illustration  of  the  universality  of  the  Ca Folic 

«r 

Church.  In  the  division  into  nationalities  we  find  the 
Irish  clement  stronger  than  would  at  first  appear.  Of  the 
forty-nine  Mitred  Prelates  who,  with  the  clergy,  composed 
the  Council,  sixteen  are  set  down  as  American,  nine  Irish, 
twelve  French,  two  Flemish,  three  Spanish,  two  Swiss,  one 
Austrian,  and  two  German.  But  of  the  sixteen  American 
Prelates,  about  one-half  are  of  Irish  blood — nearly  all 
of  these  the  sons  of  Dish -born  parents.  Thus  fully  two- 
thirds  of  the  English-speaking  Bishops  of  the  American 
Church  owe  their  origin  to  that  country  which  is  now,  as 


ft  24 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


it  was  in  remote  ages,  the  most  successful  propagandist  of 
Catholicity.*  Sprung  from  different  branches  of  the  hu¬ 
man  family,  representing  different  races,  speaking  in  differ¬ 
ent  tongues,  gathered  together  from  States  and  territories 
separated  by  thousands  of  miles,  they  were  animated  but 
by  one  motive  and  feeling.  When  replying  to  the  address 
presented  to  him  by  Archbishop  Purcell  in  the  name  of 
the  assembled  Prelates  and  Clergy,  Archbishop  Spalding 
puts  this  point  prominently  forward  : — 

‘  Here  we  have  venerable  Prelates  from  all  parts  of  this  great  and 
vast  republic,  some  of  whom  have  come  five  or  six  thousand  miles  : 
have  come  at  my  voice,  because  in  my  voice  they  recognised  the  voice 
of  Peter  and  of  Christ.  .  .  .  We  came  together  to  devise  ways  and  means 


*  There  was  missed  from  the  assembly  this  long-familiar  face  of  one  who, 
meek  and  mild  and  gentle,  had  for  tliree-and-thirty  years  shed  the  steady  light 
of  his  wisdom  on  the  councils  of  his  venerable  brethren  of  the  American  epis¬ 
copacy.  Three  years  before,  Francis  Patrick  Kenrick  departed  this  life,  after  a 
long  and  honoured  career.  A  great  Irishman,  Archbishop  Kenrick  was  not  so 
famous  in  the  world  as  his  countrymen.  Bishop  England  and  Archbishop  Hughes  ; 
but  if  he  lacked  their  shining  qualities,  their  stirring  eloquence,  and  the  bold¬ 
ness  and  energy  by  which  they  were  distinguished,  he  was  eminent  not  only 
for  the  sweetest  and  gentlest  nature,  the  most  modest  and  humble  disposition, 
but  for  a  scholarship  as  rare  as  it  was  profound.  When  he  was  consecrated,  in 
1833,  the  American  Church  was  in  its  infancy,  its  following  scarcely  amounting 
to  the  one-twentieth  of  its  present  magnitude.  As  Bishop  of  Philadelphia  he 
had  his  full  share  of  trial  and  tribulation  during  the  long  years  of  early  struggle, 
of  active  hostility  and  occasional  persecution,  aggravated  by  the  evil  of  in¬ 
ternal  dissension  ;  but  he  did  not  close  his  eyes  to  this  world  until  he  beheld  the 
wonderful  progress  of  the  Church  which  he  so  signally  served,  and  so  strikingly 
adorned  by  his  virtues.  Notwithstanding  his  unceasing  devotion  to  the  duties 
of  his  exalted  office,  whether  as  Bishop  of  Philadelphia  or  Archbishop  of  Balti¬ 
more,  he  found  time  to  enrich  Catholic  literature  with  many  of  the  most 
valuable  works  that  could  find  a  place  in  the  library  of  a  layman  or  an  eccle¬ 
siastic.  Besides  an  exhaustive  Treatise  on  the  Pidmacy,  and  a  Course  of  The¬ 
ology,  highly  estimated  by  professors  as  well  as  students,  he  translated  and 
annotated  the  8'acred  Scriptures ;  and  the  most  competent  judges  admit  this 
his  greatest  woi’k  to  be  a  model  of  the  most  varied  and  profound  erudition. 

But,  though  as  simple  and  unpretending  as  a  child,  though  modest  and  gentle, 

he  could  be  as  stern  as  brass  when  duty  required,  and  principle  was  at  stake. 
Bishop  Hughes  himself  could  not  have  more  boldly  laced  the  contumacious 
of  his  flock  than  did  Bishop  Kenrick  beard  and  conquer  the  presumptuous 
trustees  of  Pittsburg. 

‘The  church  is  yours,’  he  said  to  them,  from  the  pulpit  of  St.  Patrick's.  ‘You 
have  a  perfect  right  to  do  what  you  please  with  it.  I  claim  no  right  to  inter¬ 
fere  with  any  appropriation  of  it  you  wish  to  make.  You  may  make  of  it,  if  you 
will,  a  factory,  and  I  will  not  interfere.  But  there  is  one  thing  which  I  do  tell 
you,  and  it  is  this  :  if  you  wish  it  to  be  a  Catholic  church,  you  must  comply 
with  the  requirement  of  the  law  which  I  have  laid  before  you.  Now,  do  as  you 
please.  ’ 

To  the  zeal,  energy,  and  wisdom  of  Dr.  Kenrick  are  the  Irish  of  the  diocese 

of  Philadelphia  to  a  considerable  extent  indebted  for  the  spiritual  advantages 

they  now  so  abundantly  enjoy. 


PROTESTANT  TRIBUTE  TO  THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH.  525 


to  carry  out  the  purpose  for  which  Christ  died  on  the  Cross,  to  save 
men.  to  bind  them  together  in  unity  and  charity,  and  to  make  them 
lead  holy  lives.  Absorbed  in  this  great  object,  we  have  soared  far 
above  the  regions  of  storms  and  clouds  into  the  pure  atmosphere  of 
God,  where  there  is  no  controversy  or  contention  stirred  up  by  human 
passion  ;  and  men  sprung  from  various  nations,  in  this  Council,  have 
lost  sight  of  all  differences  of  nationality  and  temperament,  and  have 
blended  in  that  beautiful  unity  and  harmony  which  the  Catholic 
Church  can  alone  exhibit. 

The  assembling  of  the  Council  elicited  from  an  able 
newspaper  of  Baltimore,*  a  testimony  to  the  conduct  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  which  thoroughly  represents  what  I  have 
heard  expressed  in  more  than  a  hundred  instances  through¬ 
out  the  States.  I  find  it  quoted,  among  other  articles 
from  the  public  press,  in  the  volume  containing  the  official 
record  of  this  memorable  manifestation  of  the  progress 
of  the  Church.  I  know  it  represents  the  almost  universal 
feeling  of  the  South,  and  of  all  but  the  extreme  or  violent 
of  the  North  : — 

But  while  Ave  do  not  propose  to  enter  upon  a  theme  so  nearly 
boundless,  and  involving  so  many  considerations  which  divide  the 
minds  of  men,  it  is  but  appropriate  to  the  occasion,  and  it  certainly 
is  a  pleasure  to  us  to  say,  that  the  course  of  the  Clergy  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  during  our  late  civil  dissensions,  will  make  this 
demonstration  of  its  vitality  and  vigour  very  welcome  to  multitudes, 
Avho,  but  a  little  while  ago,  Avould  have  witnessed  it  with  jealous 
concern.  With  but  few  exceptions — and  those  chiefly  noted  for  their 
rarity — the  priesthood  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Commnnion  have  kept 
their  hands  clean  of  brothers’  blood.  They  have  preached  only  the 
Gospel,  and  the  great  doctrines  of  peace  and  good  will  on  Avhich  it 
rests,  and  have  not  sullied  their  altars  with  fratricidal  emblems,  or 
turned  their  anthems  of  praise  into  songs'  of  hate  and  Avar.  In  the 
camps  of  both  armies  they  Avere  ministers  of  God  only,  and  faithful 
to  their  high  calling  amid  the  terrors  of  the  battle-field  and  the 
dangers  of  the  pest  house  and  the  hospital;  they  dedicated  them¬ 
selves  exclusively  to  the  alleviation  of  bodily  suffering  and  the  gentle 
and  holy  ministerings  of  religious  consolation.  It  is  for  this  that  men 

*  The  Gazette  of  the  8th  of  October,  1866.  The  article,  with  others,  is  published 
with  the  proceedings  of  the  Council,  in  a  neat  volume  b>  Kelly  &  Piet  of  Baltimore, 
r.  ith  the  approval  of  the  Archbishop. 


52G 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA 


reverence  them  to-day,  who,  ten  years  ago,  would  have  been  prompted 
by  prejudice  to  revile  them.  It  is  for  this  that  the  Church,  whose 
ministers  they  are,  is  recognised  now  by  thousands  wrho  dispute  its 
creed  as  a  worthy  depository  and  teacher  of  the  sacred  truths  which, 
in  making  men  Christians,  make  them  love  one  another.  In  all  the 
proud  annals  of  the  Church  of  Rome  there  is  no  prouder  page  than 
that  which  records  her  purity  and  steadfastness  and  independence — her 
indifference  alike  to  the  threats  and  seductions  of  power  during  the 
Confederate  Revolution. 

Seduction  could  not  betray  tlie  Church  from  the  straight 
path  of  her  duty  ;  and  to  threats,  though  backed  by  the 
power  of  armed  legions,  she  opposed  that  same  sublime 
6 Non  possumus’  by  which  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  has  so 
persistently  baffled  the  wiles  of  political  intriguers,  and 
resisted  the  fiercest  rage  of  the  enemies  of  the  Papacy. 
‘We  cannot  do  this  evil  thing — we  cannot  prostitute  our 
‘  pulpits  to  the  worst  passions  of  man — we,  ministers  of 
‘peace,  cannot  preach  havoc  and  slaughter — we  cannot 
‘  desecrate  God’s  temple  by  substituting  for  the  Cross  the 
‘banner  of  human  strife.’  This  was  the  Non  Possumus  of 
the  American  Church.  Two  Prelates — one  of  them  of  the 
most  eminent  rank — were  called  on  during  the  great 
struggle  to  exhibit  this  courage,  in  which  the  Catholic 
Church  has  ever  excelled.  To  the  order  of  a  general,  high 
in  command,  that  a  flag  should  be  displayed  on  his  cathe¬ 
dral,  the  Archbishop,  a  meek  and  saintly  man,  replied  in 
the  spirit  of  the  old  Roman — had  that  old  Roman  been  a 
Christian — ‘My  banner  is  there  already;  that  banner  is 
the  Cross  of  Christ — none  other  shall  be  there,  with  my 
consent.’  Coarse  threats  were  used  in  the  second  instance, 
and  even  personal  violence  was  not  altogether  improbable ; 
but  the  undismayed  Prelate,  a  man  of  lofty  stature,  drew 
himself  up  to  his  full  height,  and,  as  he  seemed  to  fill  the 
entrance  to  his  cathedral  with  his  swelling  form,  he  ex¬ 
claimed  to  those  who  were  rudely  pushing  on — ‘Then,  if 
you  attempt  to  pass,  it  must  be  over  my  dead  body  ;  for 
so  long  as  I  live,  no  war  flag  shall  desecrate  the  lie  use  of 


PROGRESS  OF  CATHOLICITY. 


527 


God.’  The  Clergy  caught  the  spirit  of  their  bishops,  and 
displayed  a  quiet  resistance  to  the  requirements  of  vehe¬ 
ment  partisans  which  was  little  short  of  heroic.  Thus,  in 
a  moment  of  the  severest  trial  did  the  Catholic  Church  of 
America  maintain  a  strict  neutrality,  increase  and  extend 
her  means  of  usefulness,  and  secure  the  respect  of  those 
who  admire  consistency,  or  who  deplored  the  disastrous 
consequence  of  a  war  which  they  were  powerless  to  prevent. 

Those  who  look,  as  I  do,  to  the  present  and  continuous 
progress  of  the  Catholic  Church  as  that  which  most  inti¬ 
mately  concerns  and  most  deeply  involves  the  future  of 
the  Irish  in  America,  cannot  but  regard  that  progress  with 
feelings  of  the  keenest  satisfaction.  Though  not  yet  equal 
to  the  unparalleled  increase  of  the  Catholic  population,  it 
is  sufficiently  so  to  prevent  that  loss  of  faith  of  which  so 
much  has  been  said,  too  often  in  a  spirit  of  exaggera¬ 
tion,  and  to  counteract  that  tendency  to  indifferentism 
which  is  unhappily  to  be  met  with  in  the  States.  Since 
1861  the  progress  of  the  Church  has  been  literally  mar¬ 
vellous.  Thus,  while  in  1861  the  number  of  Priests  was 
2,317,  and  the  churches  2,519,  the  number  of  Priests  in 
1867  is  3.252,  and  the  number  of  churches  3,500 — an 
increase  of  nearly  1,000  priests  and  1,000  churches  in 
these  few  years.  In  the  course  of  the  following  year  there 
will  be  about  60  dioceses  in  the  United  States ;  probably 
in  ten  years  after  there  will  be  a  necessity  for  20  additional 
sees ;  and  those  who  live  to  the  year  1900  may  behold 
100  Mitred  Prelates  of  the  Catholic  Church  of  America 
assembled,  if  not  in  the  Cathedral  of  Baltimore,  possibly 
in  one  of  those  gorgeous  temples  which  are  now  rising  in 
the  centres  of  vast  Catholic  populations,  and  for  rivals  to 
which  one  must  look  to  France,  or  Germany,  or  Italy — to 
some  of  those  majestic  monuments  of  piety  erected  by  a 
Prince  or  a  People,  a  Monarch  or  a  Pope. 

A  few  examples  illustrative  of  individual  Dioceses  or 
States  will  afford  a  better  idea  of  the  general  progress  of 


628 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


tlie  Church  than  a  summary  of  the  result  conveyed  in  a 
mere  ‘total’  Take,  for  instance,  the  Diocese  of  Milwau¬ 
kee,  comprising  the  State  of  Wisconsin. 

Up  to  the  year  1834  Milwaukee  was  the  exclusive  home 
of  the  Red  Indian ;  when  in  that  year  a  French  Canadian, 
who  is  now  about  ten  vears  dead,  settled  there,  as  a  trader 
in  furs.  This  first  white  settler  was  justly  called  the 
father  of  the  city  that  soon  after  rose  on  the  shore  of  Lake 
Michigan,  and  the  founder  of  the  Church,  of  which  he  was 
the  earliest  and  most  liberal  benefactor.  It  was  not  until 
towards  the  year  1837  that  the  Catholics  of  Milwaukee  had 
the  services  of  a  priest  permanently  settled  in  that  city. 
The  Rev.  Patrick  Kelly  then  became  the  pastor  of  some 
thirty  souls.  In  1839  the  first  church  wras  erected  in 
Milwaukee,  and  was  the  only  church  in  the  entire  of  the 
Territory,  since  the  State,  of  Wisconsin.  In  1840  the 
population  of  the  rising  city  was  about  2,000,  the  Catholics 
being  then  one-third  of  the  whole.  In  March  1844  the 
diocese  of  Milwaukee  was  erected,  the  Right  Rev.  John 
Martin  Henni  being  appointed  Bishop.  The  Bishop  found 
in  his  vast  diocese  a  Catholic  flock  of  20,000,  scattered  in 
every  direction,  twenty  churches,  most  of  them  of  the 
rudest  construction,  and  two  priests — the  Rev.  Martin 
Kundig  and  the  Rev.  Thomas  Morissey.  But  behold  the 
wonderful  change  effected  in  a  few  years,  the  result  of 
European  emigration.  Where  there  were  20  so-called 
churches  in  1844,  there  are  now  322  churches,  16  chapels, 
and  75  stations;  and  where  there  were  but  2  priests,  there 
are  now  163 — besides  2  ecclesiastical  seminaries,  2  male 
academies,  6  female  academies,  8  religious  communities, 
and  5  charitable  institutions,  with  a  Catholic  population, 
mostly  Irish  and  German,  of  400,000.  As  an  illustration 
of  the  amazing  growth  of  religious  institutions  in  the 
fruitful  soil  of  the  West,  the  development  of  a  single  one, — 
that  of  the  Order  of  ‘  Notre  Dame,’ — might  be  cited.  It  is 
not  more  than  sixteen  years  since  four  Sisters  of  this  famous 


INSTANCES  OF  THE  PROGRESS  OF  CATHOLICITY. 


529 


order  founded  a  house  in  Milwaukee,— the  first  house  in  the 
States  ;  and  now  the  Order  is  represented  by  58  convents 
in  different  parts  of  the  Union,  and  nearly  500  Sisters, 
who  educate  and  train  more  than  20,000  children.  In  the 
month  of  August,  1867,  •  60  ladies  received  the  white  veil 
and  38  received  the  black  veil,  in  the  mother  house 
of  Milwaukee.  Besides  the  Order  of  Notre  Dame,  the 
diocese  enjoys  the  services  of  Sisters  of  the  Dominican 
and  Franciscan  Orders.  For  this  wonderful  progress  of 
the  Church  and  growth  of  religious  institutions,  ‘we  are, 
under  the  blessing  of  God,  indebted  to  the  zeal,  untiring 
energy,  and  good  judgment  of  our  venerable  and  beloved 
1  ishop,’  writes  an  excellent  Irishman,  who  has  risen  to 
high  honour  in  the  city  of  his  adoption.  As  a  finish  to 
this  picture,  it  may  be  added,  that  the  assembled  bishops 
of  the  Council  of  Baltimore  recommended  the  division  of 
the  State  of  Wisconsin  into  three  dioceses,  with  Milwaukee 
as  an  Archiepiscopal  see. 

Brooklyn,  which  in  1831  was  attended  by  a  single  priest, 
has  now  twenty-four  or  twenty-five  churches  in  the  city 
alone,  with  at  least  12,000  children  educated  under  the 
care  of  religious  Orders — of  Mercy,  Charity,  St.  Dominic, 
the  Visitation,  St.  Joseph,  Sisters  of  the  Poor,  Christian 
Brothers,  and  Brothers  of  St.  Francis.  New  churches  are 
now  being  erected  throughout  the  diocese,  as  well  as  in 
the  city ;  and  in  the  latter  an  entire  square  is  devoted  to 
the  site  of  a  magnificent  cathedral,  which  will  be  a  model 
of  architectural  splendour.  The  Irish  mainly  constitute 
the  Catholic  population  of  Brooklyn,  as  of  New  York,  and 
most  of  the  Eastern  cities.  Still  in  this,  as  in  other  dioceses 
— indeed,  in  all  dioceses — more  priests  are  •  required.  Of 
the  thirty  other  churches,  besides  those  of  the  city,  we  find 
that  some  are  attended  every  two  weeks,  several  once  a 
month,  and  one  only  every  six  weeks.  Nevertheless,  it  is 
progress — progress — progress — in  all  directions. 

In  1847  Bishop  Timon  took  possession  of  the  see  of 

2H 


530 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


Buffalo,  where,  to  use  his  own  words,  ‘in  the  new  diocese 
there  were  then  sixteen  priests  and  sixteen  churches  ; 
though  most  of  those  churches  might  rather  be  called  huts 
or  shanties.’  That  venerable  prelate — whom  I  had  the 
satisfaction  of  meeting  towards  the  close  of  1866 — has 
since  gone  to  receive  the  reward  of  a  life  glorious  to 
religion.  That  Bishop  has  left  behind  him  a  noble  legacy 
to  the  Church, — 165  churches,  including  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  cathedrals  now  in  the  country ;  126  priests ;  4 
colleges  and  seminaries ;  9  male  and  18  female  institu¬ 
tions,  to  which  are  attached  colleges  and  academies ;  16 
charitable  institutions,  4  being  hospitals,  and  12  asylums ; 
with  32  parochial  schools.  And  hard  work  had  Bishop 
Timon  for  the  first  years  of  his  mission,  in  meeting  the 
wants  of  a  fast  increasing  flock,  and  resisting  the  evil 
spirit  of  ill-regulated  ‘trusteeship.’  But  if  his  labour  was 
great,  so  is  its  result. 

"When  Bishop  England  terminated  his  apostolic  career, 
there  were  in  the  whole  of  his  diocese,  which  comprised 
the  States  of  North  and  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  but 
8,000  Catholics ;  and  now  in  Charleston  alone  there  are 
12,000  Catholics,  8,000  of  whom  are  Irish-born,  or  the 
descendants  of  Irish.  And  in  the  city  of  Mobile,  which 
bounded  the  vast  diocese  of  that  great  prelate,  there  is 
now  a  Catholic  population  of  some  12,000,  mostly  Irish — 
a  thriving,  orderly,  prosperous  community — presided  over 
by  a  good  and  zealous  Irish  bishop. 

Take  a  Northern  city,  Manchester,  in  New  Hampshire ; 
and  we  shall  see  how  the  good  work  proceeds.  The  case 
of  Manchester  is  more  important,  as  we  may  contrast  the 
past — of  a  few  years  since — with  the  present.  The  existing 
Catholic  church  being  too  small  for  its  growing  Catholic 
congregation,  now  numbering  8,000,  a  similar  edifice  is  in 
the  course  of  erection.  Shortly  after  the  existing  church 
had  been  erected,  which  it  was  in  evil  days,  and  under 
circumstances  of  the  greatest  discouragement — in  fact,  of 
insult  and  actual  outrage — a  band  of  riotous  Know  Nothings 


THE  PAST  AND  THE  PRESENT.  MU 

assembled  on  tlie  Fourth  of  July,  and  commenced  its 
'  destruction.  They  had  succeeded  in  destroying  its  windows 
of  stained  glass,  when  a  party  of  Irish  Catholics  gallantly 
encountered  and  dispersed  the  mob,  and  saved  from  further 
injury  the  church  which  had  cost  them  so  much  sacrifice. 
To  the  credit  of  the  local  authorities,  they  not  only  ex¬ 
pressed  their  regret  at  the  outrage,  but  offered,  as  a  com¬ 
pensation,  to  repair  all  damages.  This  the  Rev.  Mr. 
McDonald  declined  on  behalf  of  his  flock,  simply  requiring 
protection  from  future  violence.  The  attempt  on  the 
church  was  not  the  only  one  made  against  the  Catholics 
in  Manchester.  The  Convent  of  Mercy,  which  is  adjacent 
to  the  church,  was  near  being  destroyed  by  fire  at  the 
hands  of  a  fanatical  workman  who  was  engaged  in  its 
erection.  He  remained  one  evening  after  the  other  work¬ 
men  had  left,  and  deliberately  set  fire  to  some  shavings 
that  he  brought  with  him  to  the  cupola  for  his  nefarious 
purpose.  Fortunately,  no  sooner  had  the  flames  broken 
out  than  tliev  were  discovered,  and  the  fire  was  extinguished 
before  any  serious  injury  was  done.  But  since  then  both 
church  and  convent  have  remained  unmolested,  and  there 
are  few  cities  in  which  religious  and  clergy  are  now  more 
respected  than  in  Manchester.  Since  the  arrival  of  the 
Sisters,  in  1858,  there  have  been  over  250  converts  in¬ 
structed  by  them  in  the  faith,  and  mostly  from  the  wealthier 
class  of  society.  In  the  free  schools  under  the  charge  of 
the  Sisters,  there  are  more  than  800  children,  all  of  whom 
are  either  Irish-born,  or  of  Irish  extraction.  Besides  the 
free  schools,  there  are  also,  under  the  same  management, 
two  pay  schools,  and  a  select  boarding  school. 

Twenty-five  years  since,  a  room  of  very  moderate  size 
contained  all  the  Catholics  that  assembled  to  worship  God 
in  the  city  of  Newark.  In  this  temporary  chapel  the 
women  alone  were  accommodated  with  seats,  which  were 
formed  of  rude  planks  laid  across  empty  boxes.  What  a 
change  in  1866 !  A  cathedral,  with  other  churches,  r, 


532 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


cliurcli  of  grand  proportions  in  contemplation,  several 
valuable  institutions,  an  efficient  staff  of  priests,  and 
13,500  communicants  at  Christmas !  * 

Then,  if  we  turn  our  glance  Westward,  and  rest  it  for  a 
moment  on  that  most  marvellous  of  all  modern  cities — 
Chicago — what  do  we  see  ?  A  few  years  ago  and  Chicago 
was  not  heard  of ;  it  had  no  existence.  Since  then  it  has 
risen  literally  from  the  swamp,  a  city  of  magical  growth, 
yet  of  full  maturity,  perhaps  the  most  extraordinary  in¬ 
stance  of  the  energy  of  a  people  which  the  world  has  ever 
seen.  But  yesterday  a  sprinkling  of  shanties  on  the  Hat 
shore  of  Lake  Michigan ;  to-day  one  of  the  most  famous 
centres  of  industry  in  the  States,  and  known  on  every 
nublic  change  in  Europe.  In  this  marvellous  City  of  the 
West,  in  which  progress  assumes  dimensions  almost  gigantic 
— with  its  grain  elevators  capable  of  storing  twelve  million 
bushels  of  grain,  and  loading  the  largest  ship  in  little  more 
than  an  hour — its  abattoirs,  that  each  slaughter  from  1,000 


*  In  the  following,  from  a  Sister  of  Mercy  in  Little  Lock,  writing  to  a  lady 
friend,  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  the  letter,  we  have  a  glimpse  of  the  progress 
of  the  church  in  Arkansas  : — 

‘We  came  here  from  ‘‘old  Erin”  in  1851,  at  the  earnest  solicitation  and  ac¬ 
companied  by  our  late  lamented  Bishop  and  Father,  Iliglit  Rev.  A.  B\rne,  and 
found  an  ample  field  for  our  exertions,  his  zealous  efforts  not  having  juelded 
a.  due  return,  for  the  want  of  sufficient  labourers  in  the  vineyard.  The  name  of 
Catholic,  and  still  more  the  practice,  was  scarcely  understood  by  the  majority 
of  the  people.  A  priest  was  a  person  on  whom  every  eye  rested  for  censure, 
and  a  religious  community  a  retreat  for  oddities,  or  something  worse.  Such  was 
the  sad  vision  that  met  our  view  upon  our  first  entrance  into  this  distant  country 
of  our  adoption,  so  that  we  frequently  needed  to  cast  a  glance  heavenward,  iii 
order  to  rouse  our  sinking  spirits  along  the  weary  road. 

‘It  has  pleased  Almighty  Go  i  to  bless  our  efforts  with  much  success.  For 
months  after  our  arrival  we  had  but  three  Catholic  children  to  instruct  in  die 
faith  ;  now  we  have  an  immense  number,  many  of  whom  are  the  consecrated 
children  of  Mary.  For  many  weeks  past  we  have  been  busily  engaged  pre¬ 
paring  adults  for  Baptism,  most  of  whom  are  ladies  of  the  first  rank  and  fortune 
1  ight  received  Baptism  since  Easter.  So  that  we  have  great  reason  to  rejoice 
in  having  been  chosen  as  humble  instruments  in  the  hands  of  God  in  the 
promotion  of  His  glory  in  this  vast  and  scattered  diocese. 

‘  Our  present  Bishop,  Right  Rev.  Edward  Fitzgerald  is  an  Irishman  by  birth, 
but  an  American  by  education,  youthful  in  years  but  mature  in  virtue.  His 
advent  amongst  us  was  a  source  of  unspeakable  happiness  to  us  all.  Our  priests 
are  all  Irish  tco.  and  both  good  and  zealous. 

‘  Of  the  Irish  laity,  few  of  them  were  above  a  very  humble  grade  of  life  ;  yet 
they  are  all,  in  Little  Rock,  in  comfortable  circumstances,  and  in  the  enjoyment 
of  snug  little  homesteads. 

‘There  are  three  institutes  of  our  Order  in  this  diocese, — at  Little  Rock.  Fort 
r'mith,  and  Helena,  and  numbering  in  total  thirty-five  members — all,  with  threw 
exceptions,  thorough  Irish,  body,  soul,  mind,  and  heart. 


THE  CIIUilCH  IX  CHICAGO  AND  NEW  YORK. 


533 


to  2,000  hogs  in  a  single  dav- — its  net-work  of  railways 
connecting  it  with  every  State  in  the  Union — its  tunnel 
running  two  miles  into  the  lake,  to  supply  pure  water  for 
its  inhabitants — its  machinery  for  lifting  whole  blocks  of 
houses,  and  building  additional  stories  under  them  without 
interfering  with  the  business  or  the  comfort  of  a  tenant ! — 
in  this  marvellous  Chicago,  the  very  embodiment  of  the 
spirit  of  go-alieadism,  the  Catholic  Church  is  not  a  whit 
behind  hand.  It  strives,  and  with  cheering  success,  to 
keep  pace  with  a  progress  almost  without  example  in  the 
world.  In  the  city  there  are  about  20  Catholic  churches, 
for  a  Catholic  population  of  60,000,  of  whom  50,000  are 
Irish;  and  other  churches,  including  one  of  considerable 
grandeur,  are  either  in  course  of  erection  or  in  active 
contemplation.  It  has  even  now  12,000  Catholic  children, 
of  all  classes  and  conditions  of  life,  receiving  a  sound 
Catholic  teaching  in  academies  and  parochial  schools.  And, 
a  not  less  significant  indication  of  progress,  it  is  receiving- 
daily  within  its  fold  converts  of  the  educated  classes 
of  society.  In  one  church,  in  the  year  1866,  the  Bishop — 
a  most  accomplished  gentleman  and  zealous  ecclesiastic — 
administered  Confirmation  to  500  persons  ;  and  of  that 
number  over  100  were  converts,  principally  from  the  middle 
and  upper  classes.  I  met  more  than  one  of  these  converts  ; 
and  for  intelligence,  information,  and  quiet  dignity  of 
manner,  I  have  rarely,  if  ever,  seen  their  superiors.  The 
building  of  churches  and  schools  is  a  visible  and  tangible 
evidence  of  progress,  and  there  is  abundant  evidence  of 
this  kind  in  Chicago ;  but  conversions,  and  from  the 
educated  and  enlightened  portion  of  the  community,  are 
evidences  more  important  and  more  conclusive.  Even  in 
Chicago,  the  centre  of  unceasing  movement  and  constant 
change,  the  majestic  conservatism  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
its  tranquil  serenity  in  the  hour  of  civil  strife,  its  un¬ 
broken  unity  in  the  midst  of  dissension  and  disorder— is 
a  subject  of  wonder  and  admiration :  and  thoughtful 


THE  IIUSH  IN  AMERICA. 


531 

earnest  men  cannot  avoid  beholding  in  it  an  additional 
proof  of  its  divine  mission. 

Happily  for  tlie  interests  of  religion,  happily  for  the 
welfare  of  its  enormous  Irish  population,  New  York  is  not 
devoting  all  its  energies  to  the  construction  of  a  cathedral 
which  will  cost  three  millions  of  dollars,  and  will  be  the 
pride  and  glory  of  the  Irish  Catholic  heart.*  The  Arch¬ 
bishop,  one  of  the  ablest  of  the  Prelates  of  the  American 
Church,  is  fully  alive  to  the  necessity  of  providing  ample 
accommodation  as  well  for  those  who  have  alreadv  come,  as 
for  those  who  are  certain  to  come ;  and  bv  the  close  of 
1868  the  churches  of  the  city  of  New  York  will  have 
reached  the  number  of  forty.  But  ‘  more,  more,  more !  ’ 
is  the  cry  one  hears  on  every  side ;  and  ere  the  golden  cross 
flashes  from  the  loftiest  pinnacle  of  the  Cathedral  of  St. 
Patrick,  many  new  churches  will  have  gathered  in  new 
congregations,  additional  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands 
of  worshippers.  The  progress  of  the  church  in  this  greatest 
of  American  cities  is  hopeful  and  cheering  in  the  highest 
degree,  and  in  no  city  are  institutions  of  all  kinds  more 
numerous  or  more  efficient ;  but  the  necessity  for  further 
efforts  is  perhaps  more  pressing,  more  urgent,  and  the 
field  for  the  display  of  all  the  resources  of  zeal  and 
liberality  wider  and  vaster,  than  in  any  city  within  the 
circle  of  the  Union.  Though  there  is  no  little  poverty  and 
distress  in  New  York,  there  is  also  a  rich  and  powerful 
Catholic  community;  and  though  great  things  have  been 
done,  and  are  every  day  in  progress,  still  the  Catholics  of 
New  York  are  well  aware  that  they  must  make,  and  con¬ 
tinue  to  make  large  sacrifices,  in  order  to  meet  a  state  of 
things  which,  while  exceptional  in  its  character,  is  the 
natural  and  inevitable  result  of  the  position  of  their  city — 

*  This  magnificent  structure,  which  is  being  constructed  of  white  marble,  will  be 
one  of  the  grandest  churches  in  the  world.  Its  dimensions  are  these  :  Length, 
330  feet ;  breadth  of  body  of  church,  130  ;  of  transept,  172  ;  height  of  interior, 
from  floor  to  crown  of  arched  cei  ing,  110  ;  height  of  aisles,  54  ;  elevation  of  its 
two  towers  and  spires,  320  feet  each.  And  this  all  in  white  marble  ! 


CATHOLICITY  IN  BOSTON. 


535 


virtually  the  gate  through  which  the  adventurous  of  the 
Old  World  reach  the  New.  And  so  long  as  the  stream  of 
European  emigration  flows  into  and  through  New  York, 
so  long  must  the  spiritual  wants  of  the  Church  impose  an 
onerous  but  necessary  burden  on  the  generosity  of  the 
faithful.  From  what  I  have  seen  of  the  pastors  and  the 
flock,  I  have  no  fear  as  to  the  result. 

But  turn  to  Boston, — Boston,  the  stronghold  of  the 
Puritan — Boston,  the  nursing-mother  of  all  the  ‘  isms  * 
which  in  the  past  proclaimed  hostility  to  the  stranger  and 
the  Catholic — Boston,  which  has  not  to  this  day  obliterated 
the  blackened  traces  of  the  fire  that,  amidst  the  veils  of 
an  infuriated  mob,  shot  up  its  fierce  blaze  to  the  heavens 
from  the  burning  timbers  of  the  dwelling  in  which  holy 
women  divided  their  lives  between  the  education  of  the 
young  and  the  worship  of  the  Deity, — Boston,  whose  lead¬ 
ing  citizens  informed  Archbishop  Carroll  that  had  they, 
some  time  before  his  visit,  met  a  Catholic  in  the  street, 
they  would  have  crossed  to  the  other  side,  such  was  their 
horror  of,  or  such  their  aversion  to,  one  of  that  detested 
creed.  In  this  same  Boston,  on  Sunday,  the  15tli  of 
September  1867,  Bishop  Williams,  attended  by  several 
other  Prelates,  and  in  the  presence  of  an  immense  multi¬ 
tude,  laid  the  foundation  stone  of  a  Cathedral  which  will 
be  one  of  the  most  imposing  structures  in  the  country. 
The  vastness  of  its  dimensions  fitly  typifies  the  progress  of 
Catholicity  in  Massachusetts.  These  are  they,  at  least  the 
principal,  given  in  the  words  of  the  architect:  cThe  ex¬ 
treme  length,  from  the  front  of  the  large  tower  to  the  rear 
of  the  large  chapel  in  East  Union  Park  Street,  is  364  feet, 
while  the  distance  from  the  front  entrance  to  the  rear  of 
the  chancel  is  295  feet.  The  breadth  of  the  nave  and  aisles 
at  the  buttresses  is  98  feet,  the  transept  is  140  feet.  .  .  . 

The  ridge  of  the  nave  roof  will  be  118  feet  above  the  street, 
while  the  nave  ceiling  will  be  87  feet  high.’  And  at  an 
altitude  of  300  feet  the  great  tower  will  rise,  crowned  with 


THE  J RISK  IN  AMERICA. 


536 

a  golden  cross.  Such  are  the  main  dimensions  of  the 
Cathedral  of  the  Holy  Cross,  in  whose  adornment  the  best 
efforts  of  Christian  art  and  Catholic  piety  will  be  enlisted 
and  employed. 

Archbishop  M‘Closkey  addressed  the  assembled  multitude 
who  witnessed  the  ceremonial ;  and  his  words  are  at  once 
so  authoritative  and  so  descriptive,  as  well  of  the  progress 
of  the  Catholic  Church  in  Massachusetts  and  the  New 
England  States,  as  of  the  material  and  social  advance  of 
the  ‘  old  world  immigrants  ’ — who  in  these  States  are  prin¬ 
cipally  Irish — that  an  extract  or  two  from  his  admirable 
discourse  may  fittingly  occupy  a  place  in  these  pages. 

Contrasting  the  past  with  the  present,  the  Archbishop 
says : — 

‘There  are  those  most  probably  now  within  sound  of  my  voice,  who 
can  remember  when  there  was  but  one  Catholic  church  in  Boston,  end 
when  that  sufficed,  or  had  to  suffice,  not  alone  for  this  city,  but  for  all 
New  England ;  and  how  is  it- now?  Churches  and  institutions  multi¬ 
plied,  and  daily  continuing  to  multiply,  on  every  side,  in  this  city, 
throughout  this  State,  in  all,  or  nearly  all,  the  cities  and  States  of 
New  England ;  so  that,  at  this  day,  no  portion  of  our  country  is  en¬ 
riched  with  them  in  greater  proportionate  numbers,  none  where  they 
have  grown  up  to  a  more  flourishing  condition,  libne  where  finished 
with  more  artistic  skill,  or  presenting  monuments  of  more  architec¬ 
tural  taste  and  beauty.’ 

To  God’s  blessing — not  overlooking  what  may  to  some 
appear  the  natural  and  obvious  reason,  namely,  ‘the  never 
ceasing  tide  of  immigration  that  has  been  and  still  con¬ 
tinues  to  be  setting  towards  the  American  shores  ’ — the 
Archbishop  attributes  this  astonishing  progress.  He  ac¬ 
curately  represents  the  anticipations  of  those,  and  they 
were  many,  who  held,  that  the  Catholic  religion  would 
never  take  root  in  the  free  soil  of  America — that  it  would 
wither  and  shrivel  up  in  the  pure  atmosphere  of  New 
England  enlightenment. 

But  with  regard  to  the  Catholic  portion  of  these  immigrants,  must 
we  not  bear  in  mind  that  their  religion  was  looked  on  with  much  dis* 


ANTICIPATIONS  NOT  REALISED. 


537 


favour,  by  some,  even  with  bitter  prejudice  and  inveterate  dislike?  It 
was  held  and  represented  to  be  a  religion  of  ignorance  and  superstition, 
full  of  the  grossest  absurdities  and  palpable  errors.  The  prediction 
was  confidently  made  that  it  could  not  long  endure  when  once  brought 
lace  to  face  with  the  light  and  intelligence  of  this  free  country — that, 
at  best,  it  could  never  make  any  headway,  except  in  its  first  migratory 
character,  that  it  might  spread  along  the  surface,  but  could  never  take 
root  in  the  soil ;  that,  in  process  of  time,  as  it  would  be  brought  mote 
in  contact  with  the  teachings,  as  was  said,  of  a  purer  gospel,  it  would 
be  subjected  more  fully  to  the  action  of  our  republican  institutions,  it 
would  lose  its  hold  on  the  minds,  even  of  its  own  followers,  and  be 
forced  gradually  to  give  way  before  the  progressive  and  irresistible 
spirit  of  the  age ;  and  if  this  would  not  be  true  of  the  old  world  immi¬ 
grants,  it  would  be  found  so,  at  least,  of  their  descendants.  Their 
children,  possessing  here  the  advantages  of  better  education,  growing 
up  more  intelligent,  more  inquisitive,  more  independent,  partaking 
more  fully  of  American  life  and  character,  would  be  too  sensible  and 
too  shrewd  to  cling  to  such  an  unpopular  form  of  faith  ;  unsuited  to 
the  country  and  the  times,  that  would  bring  them  neither  worldly 
honour  nor  worldly  gain,  but,  on  the  contrary,  would  stand  in  the  way 
of  their  temporal  interests,  would  hinder  them  from  rising  in  the 
social  scale — in  a  word,  would  confound  them  with  the  vulgar  and 
ignorant  horde  that  still  blindly  persisted  in  believing  Transubstantia- 
tion,  and  adhering  to  the  Pope  of  Rome. 

The  Archbishop  eloquently  describes  the  utter  falsifi¬ 
cation  of  all  these  hopes  and  anticipations  : — 

$ 

Well,  Beloved  Brethren,  have  these  predictions  been  fulfilled? 
Certainly  there  is  nothing  here  that  would  lead  me  to  think  so ;  and, 
if  not  in  the  past  or  present,  I  see  less  sign  of  their  being  so  in  the 
future.  Many,  perhaps  most  of  you,  are  from  a  foreign  land.  Well, 
do  you  love  the  old  faith  now  less  than  you  did  when  you  first  landed 
on  these  free  shores?  Is  it  less  dear  to  you  here,  in  this  home  of 
your  adoption,  than  it  was  on  your  native  soil  in  the  home  of  your 
childhood?  Do  you  cherish  it  less  warmly?  do  you  cling  to  it  less 
firmly?  would  you  die  for  it  less  freely?  I  think  that,  with  one 
accord,  you  will  answer  No.  So,  throughout  every  portion  of  this 
great  Republic,  which  you  love  as  ardently  as  do  its  own  sons,  for 
which  you  would  lay  down  your  lives  as  generously,  to  the  same 
question  your  brethren  would  give  the  same  response — No  !  a  thou¬ 
sand  times  No!  But  your  children,  how  has  it  been  with  them? 
In  their  case,  assuredly,  the  test  has  been  a  severe,  and  more  dan¬ 
gerous,  because  a  more  insidious  one.  Owing  to  the  causes  at  which 


558 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


I  have  already  hinted,  and  to  other  influences  which  1  need  not  now 
enumerate,  many  indeed  have  been  lost  to  the  household  of  the  fail'll 
—more  so  in  times  past  than  in  the  present — yet  nowhere,  I  venture 
to  affirm,  will  stauncher  or  firmer,  or  more  consistent  Catholics  be 
found  than  among  these  American  native  born  ;  and  while  they  thus 
cherish  their  holy  faith,  do  they  not,  at  the  same  time,  vie  in  learning , 
in  intelligence ,  in  spirited  enterprise,  in  patriotism  and  honest  worth ,  with 
their  fellow  citizens  in  all  the  various  professio7is  and  other  pur  suits  of 
life?  If  I  needed  proof  or  illustration,  I  should  have  only  to  point  to 
many  who  are  here  now  before  me  or  at  my  side,  to  your  own  honoured 
Bishop  at  their  head.  But  why  do  I  say  this  ?  Not  surely  in  any 
boastful  or  invidious  spirit, — but  simply  to  show  that  prophecy  con¬ 
cerning  us  has  failed  —  that  our  holy  Catholic  faith  can  take,  has 
taken,  root  in  this  free  soil;  nowhere  indeed  does  it  seem  to  find 
another  more  congenial — nowhere  does  it  spread  its  roots  more  widely 
or  sink  them  more  deeply — nowhere  does  it  put  forth  more  rapid 
growth,  or  flourish  with  more  health  and  vigour,  or  give  promise  of 
more  abundant  fruit, — and  this,  we  contend,  has  come  to  pass  only  by 
God’s  blessing. 

Nor  was  tlie  Archbishop  without  referring  to  the  impor¬ 
tant  acquisition  to  the  Church  which  every  day  records — 
of  converts  of  thoughtful  and  searching  minds,  blameless 
lives,  and  good  social  position,  who  have  no  worldly 
object  to  gain,  and  who  perhaps  may  have  much  to  lose, 
by  embracing  a  faith  against  which  the  passions  and 
prejudices  of  the  world  are  as  yet  arrayed. 

Wliat  may  be  the  number  of  Catholics  in  the  United 
States,  is  a  question  of  much  interest,  respecting  which 
there  is  considerable  difference  of  opinion — some  setting  it 
down  as  very  much  less  than  it  really  is,  others  estimating 
it  beyond  what  it  possibly  can  be.  There  is  little  difficulty 
in  proving  the  number  of  churches  or  ecclesiastics  to  be 
what  is  stated  ;  but  dealing  with  a  vast  proportion  of  the 
population,  the  computation  is  not  so  simple  a  matter. 
Avoiding  anything  like  an  extreme  estimate,  and  taking 
into  account  not  only  the  enormous  emigration  of  the  last 
half  century,  chiefly  consisting  of  Catholics  from  Ireland 
and  the  continent  of  Europe  ;  considering  also  that  the 
Irish  element  is,  if  not  the  most,  certainly  one  of  the  most, 


NUMBER  OF  CATHOLICS  IN  THE  STATES.  539 

fruitful  in  the  world  ;  and  not  forgetting  this  fact,  that  iu 
several  parts  of  the  Union,  and  notably  in  the  New  England 
States,  the  annual  increase  of  the  population  is  entirely 
owing  to  the  foreign  element  * — and  in  most  of  these 
States  the  foreign  element  is  fully  five-sixths  Irish  and 
Catholic — I  am  inclined  to  agree  with  those  who  regard 
from  nine  to  ten  millions  of  Catholics  as  a  fair  and  mode¬ 
rate  estimate.  They  may  be  more,  but  it  is  not  propable 
that  there  are  less  than  9,000,000  ;  which  is  more  than 
one-fourth  of  the  entire  population  of  the  United  States. 

And  now,  what  more  need  be  said  of  the  progress  of  that 
Church  which  has  in  its  charge  the  spiritual  welfare  and 
moral  worth  of  the  Irish  in  America  ?  She  has  her  enemies, 
and  will  continue  to  have  them,  as  she  has  ever  had  ;  and 
these  have  been  her  glory  rather  than  her  shame.  Sects 
will  assail  her,  and  even  parties  may  league  against  her  ; 
but  she  will  pursue  the  even  tenor  of  her  way,  neither 
looking  to  the  right  nor  to  the  left,  as  indifferent  to  threat 
as  to  seduction — preaching  peace  and  love  to  all  men — 
lifting  up  her  children,  by  her  holy  influence,  to  a  truer 
appreciation  and  a  more  practical  fulfilment  of  their 
duties  as  Christians  and  as  citizens — teaching  them  to  love 
and  honour  and  serve  the  great  country  in  which,  not¬ 
withstanding  the  idle  rage  of  the  fanatic  and  the  folly  of 
the  shortsighted,  she  has  full  freedom  of  development,  of 
active  and  noble  usefulness. 

For  this  glorious  Church  of  America  many  nations  have 
done  their  part.  The  sacred  seed  first  planted  by  the  hand 
of  the  chivalrous  Spaniard  has  been  watered  by  the  blood 
of  the  generous  Gaul ;  to  the  infant  mission  the  English¬ 
man  brought  his  steadfastness  and  his  resolution,  the 
Scotchman  his  quiet  firmness,  the  Frenchman  his  en¬ 
lightenment,  the  Irishman  the  ardour  of  his  faith  ;  and  as 
time  rolled  on,  and  wave  after  wave  of  emigration  brought 

*  For  some  interesting  information  on  this  subject  the  reader  is  referred  to  the 
Appendiv. 


540 


THE  IRISH  IX  AMERICA. 


with  it  more  and  more  of  the  precious  life-blood  of  Europe, 
from  no  country  was  there  a  richer  contribution  of  piety 
and  zeal,  of  devotion  and  self-sacrifice,  than  from  that 
advanced  out-post  of  the  Old  World,  whose  western  shores 
first  breast  the  fury  of  the  Atlantic ;  to  whose  people 
Providence  appears  to  have  assigned  a  destiny  grand  and 
heroic — of  carrying  the  civilisation  of  the  Cross  to  remote 
lands  and  distant  nations.  What  Ireland  has  done  for  the 
American  Church  ev3ry  bishop,  every  priest  can  tell. 
Throughout  the  vast  extent  of  the  Union,  there  is  scarcely 
a  church,  a  college,  an  academy,  a  school,  a  religious  or 
charitable  institution,  an  asylum,  an  hospital,  or  a  refuge, 
in  which  the  piety,  the  learning,  the  zeal,  the  self-sacrifice 
of  the  Irish — of  the  priest  or  the  professor — of  the  Sisters 
of  every  Order  and  denomination — are  not  to  be  traced  ; 
there  is  scarcely  an  ecclesiastical  seminary  for  English- 
speaking  students  in  which  the  great  majority  of  those 
now  preparing  for  the  service  of  the  sanctuary  do  not 
belong,  if  not  by  birth,  at  least  by  blood,  to  that  historic 
land  to  which  the  grateful  Church  of  past  ages  accorded 
the  proud  title — Insula  Sanctorum. 

A  writer  who  is  not  remarkable  for  enthusiasm,  and  who 
judges  with  wisdom  and  praises  with  reserve,  thus  describes 
to  what  extent  the  American  Church  is  indebted  for  its 
progress  to  the  Irish  population  of  the  United  States*  : — 

In  recording  this  consoling  advancement  of  Catholicity  throughout 
the  United  States,  especially  in  the  North  and  West,  justice  requires 
us  to  state,  that  it  is  owing  in  a  great  measure  to  the  faith,  zeal,  and 
generosity  of  the  Irish  people,  who  have  emigrated  to  these  shores, 
and  their  descendants.  We  are  far  from  wishing  to  detract  from  the 
merit  of  other  nationalities ;  but  the  vast  influence  which  the  Irish 
population  have  exerted  in  extending  the  domain  of  the  Church  is 
well  deserving  of  notice,  because  it  conveys  a  very  instructive  lesson. 
The  wonderful  history  of  the  Irish  nation  has  always  forced  upon  us 
the  conviction,  that,  like  the  chosen  generation  of  Abraham,  they  were 

*  Sketch  of  the  Origin  and  Progress  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  the  United 
States  of  America,  by  Kev.  C.  G.  White,  P.P.,  given  as  an  Appendix  to 
Parra’s  General  History  of  the  Catholic  Church.  Published  by  P.  O’Shea- 
Barclay  Street,  New  York 


THE  PROTESTANT  AND  CATHOLIC  EMIGRANT, 


£41 


destined  in  the  designs  of  Providence  to  a  special  mission  for  the  pre¬ 
servation  and  propagation  of  the  true  faith.  This  faith,  so  pure,  so 
lively,  so  generous,  displays  itself  in  every  region  of  the  globe.  To  its 
vitality  and  energy  must  we  attribute,  to  a  very  great  extent,  the 
rapid  increase  in  the  number  of  churches  and  other  institutions  which 
have  sprung  up  and  are  still  springing  up  in  the  United  States,  and  to 
the  same  source  are  the  clergy  mainly  indebted  for  their  support  in 
the  exercise  of  their  pastoral  ministry.  It  cannot  be  denied,  and  we 
bear  a  cheerful  testimony  to  the  fact,  that  hundreds  of  clergymen  who 
are  labouring  for  the  salvation  of  souls,  would  starve,  and  their  efforts 
for  the  cause  of  religion  would  be  in  vain,  but  for  the  generous  aid 
which  they  receive  from  the  children  of  Erin,  who  know,  for  the  most- 
part,  how  to  appreciate  the  benefits  of  religion,  and  who  therefore 
joyfully  contribute  of  their  worldly  means,  to  purchase  the  spiritual 
blessings  which  the  Church  dispenses.* 

In  concluding  this  sketch  of  the  progress  of  the  Catholic 
Church  in  America,  I  may  refer  again,  though  in  a 
passing  manner,  to  the  alleged  loss  of  faith  on  the  part  of 
the  Irish.  The  reader  who  has  gone  through  the  foregoing 
pages  must  have  found  in  them  sufficient  to  account, 
easily  and  rationally,  for  whatever  loss  of  faith  did  occur 
from  the  migration  of  a  people  without  priests,  flocks 
without  pastors ;  while  he  must  have  seen  no  little  to 
admire  in  the  fidelity — -the  miraculous  fidelity — with  which 
the  same  people  kept  the  faith  under  circumstances  the 
most  unfavourable,  and  in  the  face  of  discouragements 
of  the  most  formidable  nature. 

Let  it  be  distinctly  borne  in  mind,  that  the  Irish  Cath¬ 
olic  had  everything  against  him,  nothing  in  his  favour. 
With  the  Irish  Protestant,  of  whatever  denomination,  the 
case  was  totally  different.  The  Irish  Protestant  practically 

*  One  out  of  a  thousand  instances  will  suffice  to  exhibit  the  zeal  and  gene¬ 
rosity  of  the  humbler  classes  of  the  Irish  in  America.  A  Sister  of  Mercy  thus 
tells  what  the  Irish  working  people  have  done  for  the  Order  in  Cincinnati  : 
‘The  Convent,  Schools,  and  House  of  Mercy,  in  which  the  good  works  of  our 
Institute  are  pi’ogressing,  were  purchased  in  18G1,  at  a  considerable  outlay, 
'lhis,  together  with  the  repairs,  alterations,  furnishing,  &c.,  were  defrayed  by  the 
working  class  of  Irish  people,  who  have  been  and  are  to  us  most  devoted,  and  by 
their  generosity  have  enabled  us,  ui>  to  the  present  time,  to  carry  out  successfully 
our  works  of  mercy  and  charity.’ 


542 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


knew  nothing  of  the  difficulties  by  which  the  Irish  Catholic 
was  surrounded,  nothing  of  the  trials  and  temptations  to 
which  the  Catholic  and  the  family  of  the  Catholic  were 
subjected  or  exposed.  Wherever  the  Irish  Protestant 
turned  his  face,  there  he  found  a  congregation  and  a 
church,  nay  even  the  people  and  the  very  atmosphere  to 
suit  him.  If  he  had  not,  convenient  to  his  dwelling,  a 
church  or  a  congregation  of  his  immediate  denomination, 
there  was  some  kindred  church  which  opened  its  doors  to 
welcome  him,  some  sect  to  sympathise  with  his  belief,  and 
receive  him  in  the  spirit  of  religious  fraternity.  Not  so 
with  the  Catholic.  The  multitude  of  denominations  was 
to  him  of  little  avail.  There  was  no  friendly  sect  or  kin¬ 
dred  communion  to  receive  or  sympathise  with  him.  He 
had  to  stand  alone  and  aloof,  for  with  none  could  he  amal¬ 
gamate,  or,  as  Protestant  sects  might,  fuse  down  in  one 
grand  accord  every  minor  difference.  Thus,  alone  and 
aloof,  the  Irish  Catholic,  without  church  or  pastor,  had  to 
keep  the  faith  alive  in  his  own  breast,  and  foster  it  by 
every  parental  influence  in  the  breasts  of  his  children  ; 
who  were  exposed  to  the  perilous  seductions  of  association 
with  those  young  as  themselves,  but  who,  unlike  them,  had 
a  church,  a  pastor,  or  a  congregation.  The  wonder  is,  not 
that  some  lost  the  faith ;  but  the  miracle  is,  that  it  was  so 
amazingly  preserved. 

Any  speculation  as  to  the  number  of  those  who  lost  the 
faith  would  be  as  idle  as  profitless.  It  would  require  the 
labour  of  one  of  our  Royal  Commissions,  powers  well  nigh 
inquisitorial,  and  a  dozen  years  spent  in  journeying  to  and 
fro,  to  arrive  at  anything  like  an  approach  to  the  real 
number  of  those  who  yielded  to  the  force  of  circumstances, 
and  of  those  who  resisted  their  influences.  The  belief  of 
every  thoughtful  Catholic  in  the  United  States  with  whom 
I  conversed  on  this  subject  is,  that  the  loss  has  been 
monstrously  exaggerated,  the  statements  to  that  effect 
partaking  more  of  the  nature  of  an  oratorical  flourish  than 


LOSS  OF  FAITH  AND  INDIFFERENT  ISM. 


543 


of  the  remotest  approach  to  statistical  accuracy — resting 
upon  nothing'  more  solid  than  a  paragraph  in  a  well-meant 
letter  of  warning,  or  a  full-swelling  passage  in  a  terror- 
striking  discourse.  The  motive  in  which  these  statements 
had  their  origin  was  good,  but  the  language  has  been  sadly 
reckless.  From  individual  localities,  or  exceptional  cir¬ 
cumstances,  results  sweeping  and  general  have  been  de¬ 
duced.  Whatever  the  loss — and  it  is  altogether  a  thing 
of  the  past  rather  than  of  the  present — there  can  be  no 
delusion  more  monstrous,  or  indeed  more  unjust  to  a  peo¬ 
ple  or  a  Church,  than  that  the  Irish  become,  if  not  actual 
infidels,  at  least  indifferent,  the  moment  they  land  in 
America.  Now,  were  not  the  character  of  the  Irish — the 
most  retentive  and  tenacious  of  all  races  of  the  world — a 
sufficient  answer  to  this  absurdity,  the  proof  to  the  contrary 
is  the  present  position  of  the  Catholic  Church  of  America. 
On  this  head  nothing  need  be  added  to  the  force  and 
authority  of  the  passage  I  have  just  quoted  from  a  writer 
so  careful  and  cautious  as  Dr.  White. 

Neither  is  it  true  that  indifferentism,  though  the  all- 
pervading  religious  disease  of  America,  is  one  of  the  char¬ 
acteristics  of  Catholicity  in  that  country.  The  magnitude 
of  the  work  done,  of  the  vast  and  splendid  things  ac¬ 
complished,  is  altogether  inconsistent  with  indifferentism. 
There  is  as  much  active  zeal,  as  enthusiastic  fervour,  as 
profound  piety,  in  America  as  even  in  Ireland ;  and  in 
many  places  the  organisation  for  all  church  purposes  and 
every  spiritual  object  is  more  complete  than  it  is  in  the 
old  country.  The  ceremonies  are  conducted  with  solemnity 
and  dignity,  and  the  congregations  are  collected  and  devo¬ 
tional  in  air  and  manner ;  and  whenever  the  Church  makes 
a  special  appeal  to  the  piety  of  her  children,  the  religious 
enthusiasm  is  fervent  and  intense.  There  is  one,  and  that 
a  marked  difference  between  congregations  in  Catholic 
churches  in  America  and  in  Ireland  or  England ;  and  the 
difference  is  too  honouring  to  the  American  character  to 


544 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


be  overlooked.  In  America  there  is  most  frequently  in 
Catholic  churches  a  considerable  proportion  of  Protestants 
— who  do  not  either  idly  gape  about,  or  exhibit  weari¬ 
ness  or  impatience ;  but  who  listen  gravely,  and  conduct 
themselves  with  scrupulous  decorum.  I  have  been  in 
many  of  the  Catholic  churches  of  America,  and  I  never 
witnessed  on  the  part  of  Protestants  anything  which  was 
not  respectful  to  the  place  and  creditable  to  them. 

Now,  at  any  rate,  there  is  no  fear  of  loss.  The  day  for 
that  is  gone.  Wherever  the  axe  of  the  pioneer  clears  the 
path  in  the  forest,  or  the  plough  of  the  settler  turns  up 
the  virgin  soil  of  the  prairie,  the  Church  soon  follows  and 
erects  the  Cross  ;  and  no  sooner  does  the  village  begin  to 
assume  the  outlines  of  the  city  than  the  Religious  Orders, 
those  noble  standard-bearers  and  soldiers  of  the  Faith, 
push  on  to  protect  and  defend  the  rising  youth  of  the  race 
and  religion  of  Catholic  Ireland.  The  losses  of  the  past 
are  to  be  deplored,  though  they  have  been  exaggerated ; 
but  die  America  of  the  past  is  not  the  America  of  to-day. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 


The  Irish  in  the  War — Irish  faithful  to  either  Side— Thomas 
Francis  Meagher — Why  (he  Irish  joined  distinct  Organisations 
— Irish  Chivalry — More  Irish  Chivalry — The  Religious  Influence 
— Not  knowing  what  he  preached  on — Cleanliness  of  the  Irish 
Soldier — Respect  for  the  Laws  of  War — A  Non-combatant  de¬ 
fending  his  Castle — Defended  with  Brickbats — *  Noblesse  Ob¬ 
lige’ — Pat’s  Little  Game — Irish  Devotedness — The  Love  of 
Fight — Testimonies  to  the  Irish  Soldier — The  Handsomest 
Thing  of  the  War — Patrick  Ronayne  Cleburne — General  Cle¬ 
burne  and  his  Opinions — In  Memoriam — After  the  War — The 
grandest  of  all  Spectacles. 

1ROM  the  very  circumstances  of  their  position,  it  was 


almost  a  matter  of  inevitable  necessitv  that  the  Irish 


citizens  of  America  should  ally  themselves  with  that 
political  party  which,  with  respect  to  the  foreigner  and  the 
stranger,  adopted  the  liberal  and  enlightened  policy  of 
Jefferson  and  Madison.  The  Irish,  then,  being  Demo¬ 
crats,  naturally  sympathised  with  the  prevailing  sentiment 
of  the  Southern  States,  which  was  strongly  Democratic. 
And  vet,  notwithstanding  this  sympathy,  the  result  of  a 
general  concurrence  of  opinion  with  that  of  the  South,  the 
Irish  of  the  Northern  States  not  merely  remained  faithful  to 
the  flag  of  the  Union,  but  were  amongst  the  foremost  and 
the  most  enthusiastic  of  those  who  rallied  in  its  defence, 
and  the  most  steadfast  in  their  support  of  the  Federal 
cause,  from  the  moment  that  the  first  gun,  fired  in  Charles¬ 
ton  Harbor,  echoed  through  the  land,  to  the  hour  when 
Lee  surrendered,  and  the  war  was  at  an  end.  Whatever 
their  opinions  or  feelings  as  to  the  conduct  of  those  who, 
justly  or  unjustly,  were  held  responsible  for  bringing  about 
or  precipitating  the  contest,  and  deeply  as  they  felt  the 
injury  which  war  was  certain  to  inflict  on  the  country  of 
their  adoption,  the  Irish-born  citizens  never  wavered  in 
their  duty.  None  more  bitterly  deplored  than  they  did 


54(1 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


tlie  sacl  consequences  of  civil  strife — a  conflict  which  would 
bring  into  deadly  collision  kindred  races  even  of  their  own 
people ;  but  once  the  rupture  was  irrevocable,  they  calmly 
accepted  their  position.  From  the  first  moment  to  the 
last,  they  were  animated  by  a  high  sense  of  duty,  and  an 
earnest  feeling  of  patriotism.  Fortunately  for  the  honour 
and  fame  of  the  Irish,  there  was  in  their  motives  an  utter 
absence  of  the  baneful  passions  of  hatred  and  revenge,  or 
the  least  desire  to  crush  or  humiliate  their  opponents. 
War  with  all  its  tremendous  consequences  they  faced  as  a 
stern  and  terrible  necessity ;  but  they  entered  into  it  with 
a  chivalrous  and  Christian  spirit,  which  never  deserted 
them  throughout  the  prolonged  struggle.  They  did  not 
stop  to  argue  or  split  hairs  as  to  the  constitutional  rights 
alleged  to  be  involved ;  they  acted,  as  they  felt,  with  the 
community  amid  whom  they  lived,  and  with  whom  their 
fortunes  were  identified.  The  feeling  was  the  same  at 
both  sides  of  the  line.  The  Irish  in  the  South  stood  with 
the  State  to  which,  as  they  believed,  they  owed  their  first 
allegiance,  and,  as  was  the  case  in  the  North,  they  caught 
the  spirit  of  the  community  of  whom  they  formed  part. 
They  also  were  profoundly  grieved  at  the  necessity  for  war, 
and  would  have  gladly  avoided  the  calamity  of  an  open 
rupture.  Southern  Irishmen  have  told  me  that  they  shed 
tears  of  bitter  anguish  when,  in  vindication  of  what  they 
held  to  be  the  outraged  independence  of  their  State,  which 
to  them  was  the  immediate  home  of  their  adoption,  they 
first  fired  on  the  flag  of  that  glorious  country  which  had 
been  an  asylum  to  millions  of  their  people.  The  Northern 
Irishman  went  into  the  war  for  the  preservation  of  the 
Union — the  Southern  Irishman  for  the  independence  of 
his  State.  And  each,  in  his  own  mind,  was  as  thoroughly 
justified,  both  as  to  right  and  duty,  principle  and  patriotism, 
as  the  other.  With  the  political  or  constitutional  question 
involved  at  either  side  I  have  no  business  whate  ver ;  and 
worn  I  competent  to  disentangle  it  from  the  maze  into 


IRISH  FAITHFUL  TO  EITHER  SIDE. 


547 


which  conflicting  opinions  and  subtle  disquisitions  have 
brought  it,  I  should  still,  from  a  feeling  of  delicacy,  decline 
dealing  with  a  subject  which  may  not,  as  yet,  be  freely 
handled  without  exciting  anger  and  irritation.  .  I  have 
heard  the  undisguised  sentiments  of  Irishmen  at  both 
sides  of  the  line — every  man  of  them  loving  America  with 
a  feeling  of  profound  attachment;  and  I,  who  stand,  as  it 
were,  on  neutral  ground,  have  as  full  faith  in  the  patriotism 
and  purity  of  motive  of  the  Northern  as  the  Southern,  the 
Confederate  as  the  Federal. 

In  their  zeal  for  the  cause  which  Irishmen  on  each  side 
mutually  and  of  necessity  espoused,  they  did  not  at  all 
times,  perhaps  could  not,  make  due  allowance  tfor  the 
feelings  and  convictions  of  their  countrymen  who  fought 
under  opposing  banners,  or  fairly  consider  the  position  in 
which  they  were  placed,  and  the  influences  by  which  they 
were  surrounded.  Thus,  while  the  Northern  Irishman 
could  not  comprehend  how  it  was  that  the  Southern  Irish¬ 
man,  though  sympathising  with  every  passionate  throb 
of  the  community  in  which  he  lived,  and  whose  every 
feeling  or  prejudice  he  thoroughly  shared,  could  possibly 
take  up  arms  against  the  Union — against  the  Stars  and 
Stripes — that  c  terror  of  tyrants  and  hope  of  the  op¬ 
pressed  ;  ’  in  the  same  way,  the  Southern  Irishman  could 
not  reconcile  it  to  his  notions  of  consistency,  that  the  very 
men  who  sought  to  liberate  their  native  land  from  British 
thraldom  should  join  with  those  who  were  doing  their 
utmost  to  subjugate  and  trample  under  foot  the  liberties 
of  a  people  fighting  for  their  independence.  But,  were  the 
struggle  to  be  fought  over  again,  both — Irishmen  of  the 
North  and  Irishmen  of  the  South — would  fall  inevitably 
into  the  same  ranks,  and  fight  under  the  same  banner ;  and 
though  each  could  not,  at  least  for  a  time,  do  justice  to  the 
motives  of  the  other,  every  dispassionate  observer,  who  took 
their  mutual  positions  into  account,  should  do  so.  An 
American  general,  one  of  the  most  thoughtful  and  intelligent 


518 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


men  whom  I  have  ever  met,  remarked  to  me  one  day  : — 

4  Nothing  during  the  war  was  more  admirable  than  the 
‘  fidelity  of  your  countrymen,  at  both  sides,  to  the  State 
‘  in  which  they  lived.  North  or  South,  they  were  equally 
c  devoted,  equally  faithful,  sharing  in  every  emotion  of  the 
4  community  of  which  they  formed  part.  I  know  that 
4  some  of  your  countrymen  at  our  side  could  not  make 
c  allowance  for  those  on  the  other  side,  and  in  fact  would 
4  hear  nothing  said  in  their  defence ;  but  I  always  held 
‘  the  conviction  that  not  only  could  they  not  have  done 
4  otherwise,  consistently  with  their  duty,  but  that  the 
4  manner  in  which  they  did  it  redounds  to  their  lasting 
4  honour.  The  war  has  tried  the  Irish,  and  they  stood  the 
4  test  well,  as  good  citizens  and  gallant  soldiers.  This  has 
4  been  my  opinion  from  the  first ;  and  it  is  the  same  now, 

4  that  the  war  is  happily  at  an  end.’ 

Perhaps  to  no  other  man  of  Irish  blood  was  the  Federal 
government  more  indebted  than  to  that  gifted  and  gallant 
Irishman  over  whom,  in  the  mystery  and  darkness  of  the 
night,  the  turbid  waters  of  the  Missouri  rolled  in  death — 
Thomas  Francis  Meagher.  Passionately  attached  to  the 
land  which  for  so  many  years  had  been  the  asylum  and 
the  hope  of  millions  of  the  Irish  people,  he  infused  into 
his  brilliant  oratory  all  the  ardour  of  his  soul,  and  the 
strong  fidelity  of  his  heart.  The  Union  was  the  object  of 
his  veneration  ;  its  flag  the  emblem  of  its  greatness  and 
its  glory.  Meagher  4  of  the  Sword  ’  was  in  his  element 
at  last ;  and  as  his  fiery  words  rang  through  the  land,  they 
roused  the  enthusiasm  of  a  race  -whose  instincts  are  essen¬ 
tially  warlike,  and  whose  fondest  aspirations  are  for  mili¬ 
tary  renown.  Animated  no  less  by  a  sense  of  their  duties 
as  citizens,  than  thrilled  by  accents  that  stimulated  their 
national  pride,  the  very  flower  of  the  Irish  youth  of  the 
Northern  States  rallied  under  the  flag  of  the  Union. 

Writers  foi  and  in  certain  journals  of  the  United 
Kingdom  frequently  impugned  the  character  and  the 


THOMAS  FRANCIS  MEAGHER. 


049 


motives  of  the  Irish  who  joined  the  Federal  army  during 
the  war  ;  and  ‘mercenary’  and  ‘rowdy’  and  ‘rough,’  have 
been  the  terms  too  freely  employed  to  express  dislike  of 
those  who  formed  so  powerful  an  element  of  the  strength 
and  valour  of  the  Northern  army.  But  never  was  slander 
more  malignant,  or  description  more  entirely  inapt.  Here, 
in  the  words  of  Thomas  Francis  Meagher,  traced  but  a 
few  months  before  his  lamentable  death,  is  the  simple 
explanation  of  the  motives  and  vindication  of  the  cha¬ 
racter  of  the  men  who  took  up  arms  for  a  principle,  and 
who  fought  with  the  valour  and  the  chivalry  of  true 
soldiers.  From  a  letter  dated  the  4th  of  March,  1867, 
from  Virginia  City,  Montana,  I  take  this  sentence:  ‘A 
‘  chivalrous — and  I  may  with  perfect  truth  assert  a  re- 
‘  ligious — sense  of  duty,  and  spirit  of  fidelity  to  the 

Government  and  Flag  of  the  nation  of  which  they  were 
‘  citizens,  alone  inspired  them  to  take  up  arms  against  the 
‘  South — and  this  I  well  know,  that  many  of  my  gallant 
‘  fellows  left  comfortable  homes,  and  relinquished  good 
‘  wages,  and  resigned  profitable  and  most  promising 
‘  situations,  to  face  the  poor  pittance,  the  coarse  rations, 
‘  the  privations,  rigours,  and  savage  dangers  of  a  soldier’s 
‘  life  in  the  field.’  * 

*  How  little  we  know  what  lies  in  the  future!  When  General  Meagher  wrote 
the  letter  from  which  the  above  extract  is  taken,  he  was  full  of  health  and  hope, 
with  visions  of  a  brilliant  and  a  joyous  future  before  him.  Here  are  his  own 
words  :  ‘  All  I  can  say — all  I  have  time  to  say — is  this,  that  I  am  in  the  very 

‘best  health — so  is  Mrs.  Meagher — and  that  I’m  resolved  not  to  turn  my  back 
*  upon  the  Rocky  Mountains  until  I  have  the  means  to  whip  my  carriage-and-foiir 
‘through  the  New  York  Central  Park,  and  sail  my  own  yacht,  with  the  Green 
‘  Flag  at  the  Mizen-peak,  within  three  miles  of  the  Irish  coast.’ 

I  have  met  with  many  men — American  and  Irish — who  have  seen  Meagher 
in  the  very  thick  of  the  fight,  and  who  spoke  with  admiration  of  the  b  trcpid 
gallantry  with  which  he  bore  himself  on  every  occasion  ;  and  who  described 
how  on  more  than  one  memorable  field  his  noble  Brigade,  skilfully  and  daringly 
led  by  him,  turned  the  tide  of  battle,  and  changed  the  fortunes  of  the  day.  Ere 
this,  I  believe,  more  than  one  volume  has  been  published  in  America,  doing 
justice  to  the  brilliant  Irishman  who  is  now  no  more,  and  chronicling  the  heroic 
deeds  of  one  of  the  most  splendid  military  organisations  of  modern  times. 

I  have  seen  Thomas  Francis  Meagher,  not,  it  is  true,  in  (he  thick  of  (he  fight. 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


DM) 

Tlie  Irish  citizens  did  not  enter  the  army  at  either  side 
as  a  matter  of  calculation  and  prudence,  but  as  a  matter 
of  duty,  and  from  an  impulse  of  patriotism.  Yet  if  they 
had  acted  on  deliberation,  they  could  not  have  done  more 
wisely  than  they  did.  ‘  Foreigners  and  aliens 5  they  would 
indeed  have  proved  themselves  to  be,  had  they  stood 
coldly  aloof,  or  shown  themselves  insensible  to  the  cause 
which  stirred  the  heart  of  the  nation  to  its  depths,  and,  as 
it  were  in  a  moment,  made  gallant  soldiers  of  peaceful 
civilians.  They  vindicated  their  citizenship  not  alone  by 
their  services,  but  by  their  sympathies  ;  and  in  their 
terrible  sacrifices — on  every  bloody  field  and  in  every 
desperate  assault — in  every  danger,  toil,  and  suffering — 
they  made  manifest  their  value  to  the  State,  no  less  by 
their  devotion  than  their  valour. 

From  every  State  ;  from  every  city,  town,  and  village  ; 
from  the  forest  and  the  prairie,  the  hill  and  the  plain  ; 
from  the  workshop,  the  factory,  and  the  foundry  ;  from 
the  counter  and  the  desk  ;  from  the  steam-boat,  the  wharf, 
and  the  river  bank — wherever  the  Irish  were,  or  what¬ 
ever  their  occupation,  they  obeyed  the  summons  of  their 
adopted  country,  and  rushed  to  the  defence  of  its  banner. 
They  either  formed  organisations  of  their  own,  or  they 
fell  into  the  ranks  with  their  fellow-citizens  of  other 
nationalities.  But  special  organisations,  distinctive  and 
national,  had  for  them  peculiar  attractions  ;  and  once  the 

with  the  green  flag  glancing  amid  the  smoke  of  battle,  but  in  a  position  not  less* 
trying  to  the  physical  and  moral  courage  of  man — in  the  dock  of  the  court-house 
of  Clonmel,  listening  to  the  sentence  of  death  solemnly  pronounced  upon  him  in 
the  measured  accents,  and  almost  dramatic  utterance,  of  a  judge  since  gone  to 
his  account.  It  is  now  nearly  twenty  years  since  those  awe-inspiring  words  fell 
upon  the  hushed  audience  in  that  crowded  court ;  and  I  well  remember,  a3 
if  it  were  yesterday,  the  proud  and  gallant  bearing  of  that  young  and  fearless 
tribune,  who,  I  am  convinced,  would  have  met  death  calmly  in  the  cause  to 
which  he  deliberately  sacrificed  every  hope  of  his  youth  and  dream  of  his 
ambition.  Had  he  been  allowed  to  enter  the  House  of  Commons,  when  he  made 
the  attempt  on  the  hustings  of  Waterford  in  1847,  his  fate  might  have  been 
quite  Other  than  it  was  ;  but  the  spirit  of  faction  was  too  strong  in  those  days  ; 
and  so,  while  the  British  Parliament  lost  a  brilliant  orator,  and  Ireland  an 
eloquent  advocate  and  faithful  representative,  America  gained  a  devoted  citizen. 


WHY  TI1E  IRISH  JOINED  DISTINCT  ORGANISATIONS.  551 


green  flag  was  unfurled,  ifc  acted  with  magnetic  influence, 
drawing  to  it  the  hardy  children  of  Erin.  There  were, 
in  both  armies,  companies,  regiments,  brigades,  exclusively 
Irish ;  but  whether  there  was  a  special  organisation  or  not, 
there  was  scarcely  a  regiment  in  either  service  which  did 
not  contain  a  smaller  or  greater  number  of  Irish  citizens. 
I  cannot  venture  to  particularise  or  enumerate.  The 
attempt  would  be  idle,  if  not  invidious.  But  I  have 
spoken  to  gallant  men  who  led  them  in  action,  and  were 
with  them  amid  all  the  trials  and  vicissitudes  of  a  soldier’s 
life  ;  and  whether  they  fought  under  a  distinct  organisation, 
or  without  distinction  of  national  badge  or  banner,  there 
was  only  one  opinion  expressed  of  their  fighting  qualities, 
and  their  amazing  powers  of  endurance — and  that  equally 
in  South  as  in  North,  in  North  as  well  as  South.  Why 
the  Irish  were  attracted  by  distinct  organisations,  w^as 
well  explained  by  General  Meagher.  It  wras  prior  to  the 
formation  of  his  famous  Brigade  that  he  used  the  words 
I  am  about  to  quote ;  but  wThen  once  the  war  was  in  full 
swing,  and  the  hard  wTork  had  really  commenced,  the 
chief  inducement  of  the  Irishman  to  join  either  company, 
regiment,  or  brigade,  was  the  reputation  it  had  earned, 
and  the  glory  it  had  achieved.  In  the  course  of  his 
oration  on  McManus,  he  referred  to  the  desire  even  then 
expressed  by  the  Irish  citizen  to  join  a  purely  Irish  regi¬ 
ment  or  brigade,  and  said  : — 

‘It  is  a  pardonable  prejudice,  for  the  Irishman  never 
‘  fights  so  well  as  when  he  has  an  Irishman  for  his  comrade. 
‘An  Irishman  going  into  the  field  in  this  cause,  has  this 
‘  as  the  strongest  impulse  and  his  richest  reward,  that  his 
‘  conduct  in  the  field  will  reflect  honour  on  the  old  land  he 
‘  will  see  no  more.  He  therefore  wishes  that  if  he  falls,  it 
‘  will  be  into  the  arms  of  one  of  the  same  nativity,  that  all 
‘may  hear  that  he  died  in  a  manner  worthy  of  the  cause 
‘in  which  he  fell,  and  the  country  which  gave  him  birth. 
’This  is  the  explanation  why  Irishmen  desire  to  be  together 


TIIE  IRISH  IN'  AMERICA. 


bhl 

*in  the  fight  for  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  and  I  am  sure  there 
‘  is  not  a  native-born  citizen  here  who  will  not  confess  that 
1  it  is  a  pardonable,  a  generous,  and  a  useful  prejudice.’ 

This  tendency  of  the  Irish  to  join  distinct  organisations, 
whether  of  regiment  or  brigade,  imposed  on  them  more  of 
hard  work,  more  of  risk  and  danger,  than  fell  to  the  ordi¬ 
nary  lot  of  the  soldier.  It  seemed  as  if  they  themselves 
should  do  more  than  others,  to  sustain  the  reputation  which 
they  had  often,  in  times  wdien  civil  war  was  undreamt  of, 
claimed  for  their  race — a  reputation  that  others  had  freely 
admitted  to  be  established  beyond  question.  Not  only  had 
the  Irishman  to  maintain  the  honour  of  his  regiment,  but 
he  had  also  to  maintain  the  honour  of  his  country;  for  if 
he  fought  as  an  American  citizen,  he  also  fought  as  an 
Irish  exile.  Wo  have  thus,  independently  altogether  of 
the  natural  love  of  fight  that  seems  inherent  in  the  Irish 
blood,  the  explanation  of  the  desperate  courage  disjolayed 
on  every  occasion  in  which  they  were  engaged,  in  whatever 
operation  of  wTar,  whether  as  assailants  or  defenders,  steadily 
resisting  or  daringly  attacking.  The  character  which  they 
soon  acquired  for  courage  and  devotion,  endurance  as  well 
as  dash,  added  to  their  fame ;  but  it  was  likewise  the 
cause  of  many  a  wife  being  made  a  widow,  many  a  child 
an  orphan,  many  a  home  desolate — of  mourning  and  sorrow 
at  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  When  the  General  had  work 
to  do  which  should  be  done,  he  required  soldiers  on  wdiom 
he  could  rely ;  and  wdiatever  other  soldiers  wTere  selected, 
there  was  sure  to  be  an  Irish  regiment  among  the  rest. 
And  though  Irishmen  may  possibly,  at  the  time,  have 
grumbled  at  not  being  given  enough  to  do,  they  must 
now,  as  they  calmly  recur  to  the  past,  admit  that  they 
had,  to  say  the  very  least,  their  full  share  of  the  fight  as 
of  the  hardship,  of  the  sacrifice  as  of  the  glory. 

The  Irish  displayed  a  still  nobler  quality  than  courage, 
though  theirs  was  of  the  most  exalted  nature ;  they  dis¬ 
played  magnanimity,  generosity — Christian  chivalry.  From. 


IRISH  CHIVALRY. 


65‘i 


one  end  of  the  South  to  the  other,  even  where  the  feeling 
was  yet  sore,  and  the  wound  of  defeat  still  rankled  in  the 
breast,  there  was  no  anger  against  the  Irish  soldiers  of  the 
Union.  Whenever  the  feeble  or  the  defenceless  required 
a  protector,  or  woman  a  champion,  or  an  endangered 
church  a  defender,  the  protector,  the  champion,  and  the 
defender  were  to  be  found  in  the  Irishman,  who  fought  for 
a  principle,  not  for  vengeance  or  desolation.  The  evil 
deeds,  the  nameless  horrors,  perpetrated  in  the  fury  of 
passion  and  in  the  licence  of  victory  —  whatever  these 
were,  they  are  not  laid  at  the  door  of  the  Irish.  On  the 
contrary,  from  every  quarter  are  to  be  heard  praises  of  the 
Irish  for  their  forbearance,  their  gallantry,  and  their 
ohivalry — than  which  no  word  more  fitly  represents  their 
bearing  at  a  time  when  wanton  outrages  and  the  most 
horrible  cruelties  were  too  frequently  excused  or  palliated 
on  the  absolving  plea  of  stern  necessity. 

I  could  fill  many  pages  with  incidents  illustrative  of  this 
noble  conduct,  did  space  admit  of  my  doing  so.  I  met,  in 
New  Orleans,  with  a  dignitary  of  the  Episcopalian  Church, 
who  made  the  conduct  of  the  Irish  in  the  Northern  army 
the  subject  of  warm  eulogium  ;  and  in  his  own  words, 
afterwards  written  at  my  request,  I  shall  allow  him  to  tell 
in  what  manner  the  chivalrous  Irishman  won  the  respect 
of  the  people  against  whom  he  fought,  but  whom  he  did 
not  hate,  and  would  not  willingly  humiliate. 

It  was  a  cause  of  real  grief  to  the  Southern  people  when  they  beheld 
the  Irish  nation,  in  the  midst  of  their  great  struggle  for  independence, 
furnishing  soldiers  to  fight  a  people  who  were  engaged  in  a  deadly 
contest  for  the  same  boon,  and  who  had  never  given  them  cause  of 
offence.  This  feeling  was,  however,  softened  in  the  progress  of  the 
war,  when  they  discovered  the  generous  sympathy  yet  lurking  in  the 
breasts  of  these  misguided  men,  and  which  was  never  invoked  in  vain. 
In  every  assault  made  upon  a  defenceless  household  the  Irish  soldier 
was  among  the  first  to  interpose  for  the  defence  of  the  helpless,  to 
shield  them  from  insult  and  wrong. 

In  the  march  of  Sheridan’s  cavalry  through  Albemarle  county, 
Virginia,  the  house  of  a  worthy  clergyman  was  about  to  be  entered 

24 


654 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


by  a  rude  and  tumultuous  band,  when  an  Irishman  rushed  forward  to 
protect  the  family,  assumed  the  place  of  sentinel  and  guard,  drove  the 
invaders  from  the  threshold,  dragged  from  his  hidden  retreat,  under 
the  portico,  a  burglar  who  was  breaking  into  the  cellar,  and  with 
sword  in  hand  defied  any  one  to  violate  the  sanctity  of  that  home. 
None  dared  to  resist  him,  until  a  company  of  stragglers  following  upon 
the  heels  of  the  main  body  advanced  in  force,  and  demanded  to  know 
his  authority  for  tarrying  there  when  the  troops  had  left.  ‘  To  defend 
this  house  from  thieves  and  burglars,’  was  his  reply.  Brandishing  their 
weapons,  they  attempted  to  drive  him  from  the  place,  when  he  looked 
them  quietly  in  the  face  and  asked,  ‘  How  tall  are  you  when  you  are 
fat?’  The  imperturbable  coolness  of  the  Irishman  was  too  much  for 
them,  and  they  left  him  to  enjoy  the  satisfaction  of  his  heroism,  and 
the  grateful  attentions  of  the  family  he  had  so  nobly  defended.  His 
mission  did  not  end  there,  but  taking  from  his  knapsack  his  ration  of 
coffee  and  sugar,  which  had  not  been  consumed,  he  insisted  that  the 
good  minister  and  his  family  should  accept  it  for  their  own  use.  The 
nature  of  this  man’s  service  was  the  more  appreciated  when  the  ad¬ 
jacent  plantation  was  soon  after  consumed  by  fire.  The  husband  and 
father  died  suddenly  from  the  shock,  and  the  widow  and  children 
were  left  homeless  and  foodless  in  the  negro  cabin,  to  lament  that  no 
Irish  soldier  was  there  to  shield  them  from  the  cruel  wrath  of  their 
countrymen. 

Again,  upon  the  visit  of  Sherman’s  army  to  Mecklenburg  co.  after 
the  surrender,  the  estate  of  Mr.  S.,  the  brother  of  the  minister  referred 
to,  fell  a  prey  to  the  same  species  of  violence.  His  mansion,  one  of 
the  most  magnificent  in  the  State,  was  despoiled.  His  wife,  being  ill, 
was  confined  to  her  chamber,  when  it  was  suddenly  threatened  by  an 
excited  group  of  soldiers  maddened  with  liquor.  In  vain  did  the 
physician  who  was  in  attendance  remonstrate  with  the  ruffians,  who 
insisted  upon  forcing  the  door  in  search  of  plunder.  At  this  moment 
an  Irish  soldier  came  to  the  rescue,  took  his  place  as  sentinel  at  the 
door,  hurled  back  the  crowd,  and  remained  there  for  several  hours 
the  faithful  guardian  of  that  sick  chamber,  until  the  house  was  freed 
from  its  invaders.  Every  nook  and  corner  was  searched,  everything 
plundered  that  could  be  taken  away,  every  apartment  rifled  save  that 
sheltered  under  the  segis  of  the  brave-hearted  Irish  soldier. 

The  9th  Connecticut,*  an  exclusively  Irish  regiment,  was 
quartered  in  New  Orleans  during  its  occupation  by  the 
force  under  General  Butler.  Its  officers  maintained  the 
chivalrous  character  of  the  Irish  soldier,  who  fought  for  a 
principle,  not  for  plunder  or  oppression.  They  remained 

*  I  am  not  certain  as  to  the  regiment,  but  I  am  as  to  the  nationality. 


MORE  IRISH  CHIVALRY. 


655 


in  tlieir  marquees,  and  would  not  take  possession  of  the 
houses  of  the  wealthy  citizens,  which,  according  to  the  laws 
of  wTar,  they  might  have  done.  ‘We  came  to  fight  men. 
said  they,  ‘  not  to  rob  women.’  They  soon  won  the  con¬ 
fidence  and  respect  of  the  inhabitants. 

A  soldier  of  this  regiment  was  placed  as  sentinel  before 
one  of  the  finest  houses  in  the  town,  which  General  Butler 
intended  for  his  headquarters  ;  and  his  orders  were  that 
he  should  allow  nothing  to  be  taken  out — nothing  to  pass 
through  that  door.  The  sentinel  was  suddenly  disturbed 
in  his  monotonous  pacing  to  and  fro  before  the  door  of  the 
mansion  by  the  appearance  of  a  smart  young  girl,  who,  with 
an  air  half  timid  and  half  coaxing,  said — ‘  Sir,  I  suppose 
you  will  permit  me  to  take  these  few  toys  in  my  apron  ? 
surely  General  Butler  has  no  children  who  require  such 
things  as  these  ?  ’ 

‘  Young  woman  !  ’  replied  the  sentry,  in  a  sternly  abrupt 
tone,  that  quite  awed  his  petitioner,  ‘  my  orders  are  per¬ 
emptory — not  a  toy,  or  thing  of  any  kind,  can  pass  this 
door  while  I  am  here.  But,  miss,’  added  the  inflexible 
guardian,  in  quite  a  different  tone,  ‘  if  there  is  such  a 
thing  a£  another  door,  or  a  back  window,  you  may  take 
away  as  many  toys  as  you  can  find,  or  wdiatever  else  you 
wish — I  have  no  orders  against  it  ;  and  the  more  you  take 
the  better  I’ll  be  pleased,  God  knows.’  The  palpable  hint 
was  adopted,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  something  more 
than  the  toys  was  saved  to  the  owners  of  the  mansion. 

Even  ‘Billy  Wilson’s  Zouaves,’  a  few*  of  whom  were 
admitted  to  be  of  the  class  known  to  police  definition  as 
‘  dangerous,’  sustained  the  honourable  fame  of  the  Irish 
soldier,  though  coming  to  the  South  as  ‘  invaders.’  These 
lambs  consisted  almost  exclusively  of  Irish,  and  the  de¬ 
scendants  of  Irish,  and  had  the  reputation  of  being  amongst 
the  roughest  of  the  population  of  New  York.  ‘  They  were 
a  hard  lot — many  a  hard  case  among  them  lads,’  said  an 
Irishman,  describing  them.  Still,  such  was  their  good  con- 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


556 

duct  in  the  South,  especially  in  Louisiana,  that  the  planters 
regarded  them  rather  as  protectors  than  enemies.  A  Creole 
lady  from  Teclie  county  in  that  State  lately  wrote  to  her 
nephew,  who  had  been  on  General  Dick  Taylor’s  staff, 
requesting  him  to  hunt  up  Colonel  Wilson,  and  thank  him 
in  her  name  and  his,  and  to  assure  him  of  their  continued 
remembrance  of  his  kindness,  and  the  generous  conduct  of 
his  men. 

I  myself  heard  from  the  lips  of  Southerners  praises  of 

the  gallantry  and  generosity  of  these  terrible  fighters. 

»  #  ... 

The  First  Division  of  the  Second  Corps  of  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac  was  marching,  in  November,  1862,  through 
Loudon  Valley,  passing  the  house  of  General  Ashby,  a 
Confederate  officer  who  had  been  recently  killed.  The 
Irish  Brigade  was  at  the  head  of  the  column.  Orders 
had  been  given  that  property  should  be  respected,  that 
nothing  should  be  touched.  As  the  Brigade  was  passing 
the  house,  a  number  of  chickens,  scared  by  the  unusual 
display,  fluttered  right  into  the  ranks,  and  between  the 
feet  of  the  men.  The  hungry  Irishmen  looked  at  each 
other  with  a  comical  expression,  as  the  foolish  birds  ap¬ 
peared  to  rush  into  the  very  jaws  of  danger — or  the  opening 
of  the  haversack  ;  and  many  a  poor  fellow  mentally  specu¬ 
lated  on  the  value  of  each  of  the  flutterers  in  a  stew.  The 
sense  of  the  humorous  v^as  speedily  dispelled.  In  the 
piazza,  down  on  her  knees,  her  hands  tossed  wildly  above 
her  head,  was  an  old  -woman,  thin,  stern,  white-haired  ; 
and  as  the  Brigade  was  passing  she  poured — literally 
shrieked  out — curses  on  all  those  who  fought  for  the 
‘  murderers  of  her  son.’  To  Irishmen  the  curse  of  the 
widow  or  the  childless  carries  with  it  an  awful  sound  and 
a  terrible  import.  With  averted  eyes  the  gallant  men  of 
the  Brigade  marched  past  the  white-haired  mother  who, 
frantic  in  her  bereavement,  knew  not  what  she  said. 

Very  frequently  the  most  injurious  accounts  of  the  Iris’) 
heralded  their  -arrival  in  a  locality ;  but  it  invariably 


557 


TIIE  RELIGIOUS  INFLUENCE. 

happened,  wherever  they  were  quartered,  that  those  who 
regarded  their  coming  with  apprehension  deplored  their 
departure  as  a  calamity ;  .and  numerous  instances  might 
be  told  of  communities  memorialising  the  authorities  for 
their  continued  stay — the  people  justly  considering  them 
as  their  best  protectors  amid  the  insecurity  and  licence  of 
the  moment. 

There  is  a  passage  in  a  diary  kept  by  Father  Sheeran, 
which  exemplifies  the  conduct  of  the  Irish  soldier  better 
than  any  description  could  do.  Father  Sheeran  was  one 
day  rebuking  a  simple  Irishman,  who  with  others  had  heen 
taken  prisoner  by  a  surprise  attack  upon  the  Federals,  for 
having  taken  part,  as  he  alleged  he  had,  in  the  plunder 
and  oppression  of  the  South.  The  Irishman’s  reply,  while 
bearing  the  impress  of  truth,  represents  accurately  what 
was  the  feeling  and  conduct  of  his  countrymen  during  the 
war. 

‘Well  father,’  said  he,  ‘I  know  they  done  them  things, 
‘but  I  never  took  part  with  them.  Many  a  day  I  went 
‘hungry  before  I  would  take  anything  from  the  people. 
‘  Even  when  we  had  to  fall  back  from  Lvnchburg  under 
‘  Hunter  thro’  Western  Virginia,  and  our  men  were  drop- 
‘  ping  by  the  roadside  with  hunger,  and  some  were  eating 
‘the  bark  off  the  trees,  I  never  took  a  meal  of  victuals 
‘  without  paying  for  it.’ 

Tli«  truth  is,  not  only  was  the  Irishman  free  from  the 
angry  passions  by  which  others  were  animated,  but  he  was 
constantly  impressed  by  the  strongest  religious  influence  ; 
and  to  this  cause  may  be  ascribed  much  of  the  chivalrous 
bearing  which  he  displayed  in  the  midst  of  the  most  try¬ 
ing  temptation  to  licence  and  excess.  The  war  had  in  it 
nothing  more  remarkable  than  the  religious  devotion  of 
the  Irish  soldier  whenever  he  was  within  the  reach  of  a 
chaplain.  The  practice  of  their  faith,  whether  before  battle 
or  in  retreat,  in  camp  or  in  bivouac,  exalted  them  into 
heroes.  The  regiment  that,  in  some  hollow  of  the  field, 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


558 

knelt  down  to  receive,  bare-headed,  the  benediction  of 
their  priest,  next  moment  rushed  into  the  fray  with  a  wilder 
cheer  and  a  more  impetuous  dash.  That  benediction  * 
nerved,  not  unmanned,  those  gallant  men,  as  the  enemy 
discovered  to  their  cost.  Even  in  the  depth  of  winter, 
when  the  snow  lay  thick  on  the  earth,  the  Irish  Catholic — 
Federal  or  Confederate,  it  mattered  not  which — would  hear 
mass  devoutly  on  the  bleak  plain  or  the  wild  hill-side, 
standing  only  when  that  posture  was  customary,  and 
kneeling  in  the  snow  and  slush  during  the  greater  portion 
of  the  time.  The  same  Father  Sheeran  to  whom  I  have 
referred,  told  me  how  he  was  impressed  with  the  piety  of 
his  poor  fellows  on  one  desperate  Christmas  morning, 
when,  so  heavy  was  the  snow-storm,  that  he  quite  lost 
his  way,  and  did  not  for  a  considerable  time  reach  the  ap¬ 
pointed  place  where  he  was  to  celebrate  mass.  But  there, 
when  he  arrived,  was  a  great  crowd  of  whitened  figures 
clustered  round  the  little  tent,  in  which  an  altar  had  been 
erected  by  the  soldiers — the  only  cleared  place  being  the 
spot  on  which  the  tent  was  placed.  And  there,  while  the 
storm  raged,  and  sky  and  earth  were  enveloped  in  the 
whirling  snow,  the  gallant  Irishmen  prayed  with  a  fervour 
that  was  proof  against  every  discouragement. 

Before  battle,  it  was  not  unusual  for  the  Catholic 
soldiers  to  go  to  confession  in  great  numbers,  and  prepare 
by  a  worthy  communion  to  meet  whatever  fate  God  might 
send  them  in  the  coming  fight.  This  practice  excited 
the  ridicule — the  quiet  ridicule — of  some,  but  it  also 
excited  the  respect  of  others.  A  distinguished  colonel,  of 
genuine  American  race,  who  bore  on  his  body  the  marks  of 
many  wounds,  life  memorials  of  desperate  fights,  was  speak¬ 
ing  to  me  of  the  gallantry  of  the  Irish  ;  and  he  thus  wound 
up  :  ‘  Their  chaplain — a  plucky  fellow,  sir,  I  can  tell  you 
— had  extraordinary  influence  over  them ;  indeed  he  was 
better,  sir,  I  do  believe,  than  any  provost-marshal.  They 
would  go  to  mass  regularly,  and  frequently  to  confession. 


NOT  KNOWING  WHAT  HE  PREACHED  ON. 


559 


’Tis  rather  a  curious  thing  I’m  going  to  tell  you ;  but  it’s 
true,  sir.  When  I  saw  those  Irishmen  going  to  confession, 
and  kneeling  down  to  receive  the  priest’s  blessing,  I  used 
to  laugh  in  my  sleeve  at  the  whole  thing.  The  fact  is — 
you  will  pardon  me — I  thought  it  all  so  much  damned 
tomfoolery  and  humbug.  That  was  at  first,  sir.  But  I 
found  the  most  pious  of  them  the  very  bravest — and  that 
astonished  me  more  than  anything.  Sir,  I  saw  these 
men  tried  in  every  way  that  men  could  be  tried,  and  I 
never  saw  anything  superior  to  them.  Why,  sir,  if  I 
wanted  to  storm  the  gates  of  hell,  I  didn’t  want  any 
finer  or  braver  fellows  than  those  Irishmen.  I  tell  you, 
s'.;*',  I  hated  the  “  blarney  ”  before  the  war ;  but  now  I  feel 
like  meeting  a  brother  when  I  meet  an  Irishman.  I  saw 
them  in  battle,  sir;  but  I  also  saw  them  sick  and  dying 
in  the  hospital,  and  how  their  religion  gave  them  courage 
to  meet  death  with  cheerful  resignation.  Well,  sir,’ — - 
and  the  great  grim  war-beaten  soldier  softly  laughed  as 
he  added — ‘  I  am  a  Catholic  now,  and  I  no  longer  scoff  at 
a  priest’s  blessing,  or  consider  confession  a  humbug.  I  can 
understand  the  difference  now,  I  assure  you.’ 

There  were  other  converts  of  the  battle-field  and  the  hos¬ 
pital,  besides  my  friend  the  colonel — and  of  higher  rank, 
too — who,  like  him,  caught  their  first  impression  of  the 
truth  from  the  men  whom  religion  made  more  daring  in 
the  fight,  more  resigned  in  sickness,  more  courageous  in 
death. 

Archbishop  Purcell,  the  oldest  of  the  bishops  of  the 
American  Church,  was  invited  to  preach  in  one  of  the 
camps  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland ;  and  he  delivered 
on  that  occasion  an  admirable  discourse,  which  elicited  the 
warm  approval  of  non-Catholics,  and  excited  the  enthu¬ 
siastic  admiration  of  the  Irish  soldiers ;  one  of  whom  said 
to  his  comrade — ‘  Did  you  hear  that,  Mick  ?  ’  *  To  be  sure 

I  did,’  replied  Mick.  £  Yes,  man;  but  what  did  you  think 
of  it? — wasn’t  it  the  real  touch?’  ‘Well,  in  my  opinion. 


560 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


if  I’m  to  gi\e  one — and  mind  ’twas  yon  asked  for  it— the 
Archbishop  didn’t  know  what  he  was  preaching  on.’ 
‘  Why,  what  the  d — 1  do  you  mean  ? — what’s  come  over 
you ?  ’  ‘I  tell  you  again — and  it’s  only  my  opinion — the 
opinion  of  a  poor  gommal,  if  you  like — the  Archbishop 
didn’t  know  what  he  was  preaching  on.  Look,  man,  what 
he  was  standing  on !  ’  Sure  enough,  the  Archbishop  did 
not  know  what  he  was  preaching  on ;  for  there  was  suffi¬ 
cient  in  the  boxes  under  his  feet  to  blow  up  the  Vatican 
and  the  College  of  Cardinals. 

An  Irish  soldier,  wounded  badly,  was  lying  on  a  hard- 
fought  field  in  Upper  Georgia,  towards  Chattanooga.  He 
was  found  by  a  chaplain  attached  to  his  corps  in  a  helpless 
condition,  leaning  against  a  tree.  The  priest  seeing  the 
case  to  be  one  of  imminent  danger,  proposed  to  hear  his 
confession,  but  was  surprised  to  hear  him  say — ‘  Father, 
I’ll  wait  a  little.  There’s  a  man  over  there  worse  wounded 
than  I  am  ;  he  is  a  Protestant,  and  he’s  calling  for  the 
priest — go  to  him  first.’  The  priest  found  the  wounded 
Protestant,  received  him  into  the  Church,  and  remained 
with  him  till  he  expired ;  he  then  returned  to  hear  the 
confession  of  the  Irish  Catholic,  whose  first  words  were 
— ‘  Well,  Father,  didn’t  I  tell  you  true  ?  I  knew  the  poor 
fellow  wanted  you  more  than  I  did.’  The  priest  and  the 
penitent  are  still  alive  to  tell  the  story. 

Here  is  one  of  a  thousand  instances  of  the  fact  that  the 
religious  influence  did  not  impair  the  martial  ardour  of  the 
Irish  soldier.  The  colours  of  a  Tennessee  regiment  were 
carried  into  action  at  Murfreesboro’  by  a  young  Irishman, 
named  Charles  Quinn,  of  the  famous  Jackson  Guard. 
In  the  charge  Quinn  received  a  musket  wound  in  the 
body ;  but  instead  of  going  to  the  rear,  for  his  injury 
was  desperate,  he  placed  his  left  hand  on  his  wound,  abso¬ 
lutely  refusing  to  give  up  the  colours,  until  in  the  thick 
of  the  melee  he  was  pierced  through  the  head,  and  fell 
lifeless.  The  sole  effects  of  this  gallant  Irishman  cams 


CLEANLINESS  OF  THE  IRISH  SOLDIER. 


5fil 


into  possession  of  liis  heroic  captain,  afterwards  one  of  the 
finest  colonels  in  the  service ;  and  these  were  an  ‘  Agnus 
Dei’  and  a  set  of  beads! 

The  fact  is  incontestable,  that  the  extraordinary  health 
enjoyed  by  the  Irish  who  fought  at  either  side  was  owing 
in  a  great  degree  to  their  remarkable  attention  to  cleanli¬ 
ness.  There  are  obvious  reasons  to  explain  why  in  the 
old  country  the  constant  practice  of  this  homely  virtue  is 
not  a  striking  characteristic  of  the  race.  Poverty  is  de¬ 
pressing  in  its  influence,  and  somewhat  neutralises  that 
pride  which  manifests  itself  in  outward  appearance  ;  and, 
besides,  where,  as  is  too  often  the  case  in  Ireland,  the 
grand  battle  of  life  is  for  a  bare  subsistence— just  as  much 
as  keeps  body  and  soul  together — cleanliness  is  too  apt  to 
be  lost  sight  of,  or  regarded  as  a  luxury  beyond  the  pos¬ 
session  of  the  poor.  But  were  one  to  draw  a  national 
inference  from  the  habit  of  the  Irish  soldiers  in  the  war, 
one  might  fairly  assert  that  cleanliness  was  one  of  the 
marked  and  special  peculiarities  of  the  Irish  race.  So 
universal  has  been  the  testimony  on  this  point,  that  doubt 
would  be  like  wanton  scepticism.  Whether  in  barrack,  in 
camp,  or  on  the  march,  the  Irish  soldier  maintained  a  repu¬ 
tation  for  personal  cleanliness.  When  the  war  commenced, 
and  while  the  troops  were  yet  in  all  the  newness  of  their 
uniforms,  others  may  have  been  smarter,  or  more  dandified, 
than  the  Irish ;  but  when  the  stern  work  commenced  in 
earnest,  and  uniforms  were  faded  from  exposure  and 
hardship,  or  torn  by  lead  and  steel,  and  when  the  dandy 
of  the  barrack-yard  or  the  garrison  town  had  degenerated 
into  a  confirmed  sloven,  the  Irishman  was  at  once  neat 
and  jaunty  in  his  war-worn  rags.  Whatever  the  length  of 
the  day’s  march,  or  the  severity  of  the  fatigue,  if  the 
troops  came  to  a  river,  or  brook,  or  pond,  or  even  the 
tiniest  trickling  rivulet,  the  Irishman  was  sure  to  be  at  the 
water,  as  if  with  the  instinct  of  a  duck.  He  plunged  into 
the  river  to  enjoy  the  grand  refreshment  of  a  swim,  or  il 


6G2 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


it  were  not  deep  enough  to  afford  that  healthful  luxury, 
he  washed  himself  thoroughly  in  its  shallow  stream  ;  and 
even  though  his  shirt  were  in  ribands,  as  was  too  often 
the  lot  of  the  campaigner,  it  should  at  least  be  clean,  if 
water  could  make  it  so.  I  was  amused  to  hear  a  pro¬ 
fessor  of  Georgetown  College,  himself  an  Irishman,  describe 
the  comical  terror  of  the  authorities  of  that  noble  insti¬ 
tution,  when  they  were  informed  that  the  three  wells  which 
supplied  the  establishment  were  in  danger  of  running 
dry,  owing  to  the  incessant  ablutions  of  a  famous  Irish 
regiment — the  69th — quartered  there  previous  to  the 
battle  of  Bull  Bun.  No  cat  that  ever  polished  her  fur 
into  velvetty  softness  was  more  careful  of  her  coat  than 
the  Irish  soldiers — Federal  or  Confederate — were  of  the 
cleanliness  of  their  persons  and  their  clothing,  such  as  it 
was.  In  fact,  the  fiercer  the  conflict  became,  the  more  fully 
were  the  soldierly  qualities  of  the  Irish  developed  :  and  when 
repeated  disasters  and  reverses  produced  their  demoralising 
influences  on  others,  the  irrepressible  buoyancy  of  the 
Celtic  temperament  sustained  the  spirit  and  invigorated 
the  frame  of  the  hardy  Irishman.  But,  from  first  to  last, 
cleanliness  was  one  of  their  prominent  characteristics. 
And  this  I  state  on  the  highest  authority  at  both  sides 
of  the  line. 

The  following  may  show  the  value  which  Irish  soldiers 
attached  to  their  fighting  qualities  : — 

After  the  famous  battle  of  Manassas,  won  by  the  Con¬ 
federates,  the  victors  were  gathering  the  wounded  to  con¬ 
vey  them  to  the  nearest  hospitals.  The  Confederates  were 
generally  the  first  attended  to.  But  an  Irish  soldier  hap¬ 
pening  to  recognise  in  a  wounded  Federal  an  old  acquain¬ 
tance  from  his  own  parish  ‘in  the  ould  country/  at  once 
raised  him  from  the  ground,  and  placing  him  tenderly  on 
his  shoulder  carried  his  helpless  friend  to  a  camp  hospital 
which  had  been  just  improvised,  and  attended  to  him  as 
well  as  he  could.  Next  morning,  at  an  early  hour,  he 


HESPECT  FOR  THE  LAWS  OF  WAR. 


5(i  l 


proceeded  to  the  hospital,  to  enquire  after  the  patient, 
and  learn  how  he  had  got  through  the  night.  He  found  a 
sentinel  at  the  door,  who  barred  the  passage  with  his 
ba\  onet.  4  You  won’t  lave  me  pass,  won’t  ye  ! — not  to  see 
the  poor  lad  from  my  own  parish !  ’  ‘  Faith,  I  can’t  ;  ’tis 

again  orders,’  was  the  reluctant  reply  of  the  Irishman  on 
guard,  as  he  still  presented  the  weapon.  c  Yerra,  man, 
stand  out  of  the  way  with  you,  and  don’t  bother  me ! — 
liav’n’t  we  done  the  height  of  the  fighting  on  both  sides  ?  ’ 
The  boastful  query,  coupled  with  the  good-humoured 
violence  with  which  the  bayonet  was  shoved  aside,  were 
too  much  for  the  Hibernian,  who,  shouldering  his  rifle, 
consoled  himself  with  the  remark — ‘Look  at  that!  Faith, 
one  can  see  that  fellow  doesn’t  knowT  much  of  the  laws 
of  war,  or  he’d  respect  a  sintry.  Well,  no  matter  ;  his 
intention  is  good,  any  way.’ 

Here  is  a  case  where  an  Irishman  emphatically  rebuked 
an  adversary  on  the  field  of  battle,  because  of  his  violation 
of  that  law  of  war  which  prescribes  fair  fighting  as  essential. 

Early  in  June,  1863,  the  Federals  were  advancing  to  the 
attack  of  Secessionville  battery,  on  James’s  Island,  in 
Charleston  Harbor.  Their  pickets  occupied  some  negro 
houses  and  barns  at  Legree  Point.  Captain  Klyne,  of  the 
100th  Pennsylvania,  was  in  command  of  the  picket.  The 
Charleston  battalion  and  other  troops  were  sent  to  meet 
the  enemy ;  and  so  furious  was  the  dash  made  by  a  com¬ 
pany  of  the  Old  Irish  Volunteers,  under  Captain  lly an, 
who  led  his  men  with  characteristic  gallantry,  that  the 
commander  of  the  Federal  picket  surrendered  as  a  prisoner 
of  war.  As  Captain  Klyne  was  in  the  act  of  surrender¬ 
ing,  a  German  sergeant  was  bringing  his  rifle  into  posi¬ 
tion  to  shoot  the  Captain  of  the  Volunteers,  when  one 
of  the  Irishmen — Jerry  Hurley — who  witnessed  the  mo¬ 
tion,  flung  down  his  rifle,  rushed  at  the  German,  caught 
him  by  the  neck,  and,  putting  his  leg  dexterously  under 
him,  brought  him  to  the  ground  in  the  most  scientific 


584 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


manner,  and  then  commenced  to  pummel  him  unmerci¬ 
fully  with  his  fists,  at  the  same  time  shouting — ‘  Blast 
your  sowl,  you  infernal  Dutchman !  didn’t  you  hear  your 
Captain  surrender  ?  Is  that  what  you  call  fighting  in 
your  country?  Faith,  I’ll  teach  you  a  lesson  that  you 
won’t  forget  in  a  hurry,  my  bould  boy.  Bad  luck  to  you  ! 
is  it  murder  you  wanted  to  commit  this  fine  morning  ? 
Come  along  with  me,  and  I’ll  learn  you  better  manners  the 
next  time.’  The  poor  German,  who  howled  tremendously 
beneath  the  shower  of  blows  rained  on  him  by  the  in¬ 
furiated  Irishman,  accepted  the  position,  and  followed  his 
conqueror,  as  he  and  his  company  rapidly  retired  after 
their  successful  dash. 

In  the  case  just  mentioned,  it  was  Irishman  against 
German,  Confederate  against  Federal ;  but  here  is  an  in¬ 
stance  in  which,  under  rather  extraordinary  circumstances; 
it  was  Irishman  against  Irishman.  During  one  of  the 
famous  battles  of  the  war,  a  young  Irishman  named  Peter 
Hughes  was  wounded  in  the  thigh  by  a  musket  ball,  and 
fell  helpless  on  the  field.  At  the  same  moment,  a  comrade 
of  his,  Michael  McFadden,  received  a  shot  in  the  groin, 
and  fell  prostrate  on  poor  Hughes.  Hughes  had  two  in¬ 
firmities — an  irritable  temper,  and  a  deplorable  stutter ; 
and  neither  of  these  was  improved  by  the  pain  of  his 
wound  and  the  weight  of  his  comrade.  He  could  not 
shake  M‘Fadden  off,  nor  could  M‘Fadden  help  remaining 
as  he  fell ;  so  Hughes  remonstrated  with  the  superin¬ 
cumbent  mass  in  this  fashion — ‘Da — a — a — m — n  yo — u 
— u !  isn’t  this  fie — 1 — Id  la — a — rge  en — n — o — ough  to 
—to  fall  in,  witlio — o — out  turn — um — um — bling  on 
m — m — e  ?  ’  M£Fadden  protested  his  innocence,  declaring 
he  was  not  a  free  agent  in  the  matter,  and  that  if  he  had 
his  choice,  he  would  prefer  not  falling  at  all ;  but  Hughes 
would  take  no  excuse,  and  insisted  on  M‘Fadden  turn-- 
um — um — bling  off  a — a — gain — where,  he  didn’t  care. 
M‘Fadden  could  not  stir,  but  Hughes  would  not  believe  in 


A  NON-COMBATANT  DEFENDING  HIS  CASTLE. 


5(55 


his  protestations  or  his  inability  to  move ;  so  from  words 
they  came  to  blows,  and  it  was  in  the  midst  of  a  regular 
c  mill  ’  that  they  were  found  by  the  Infirmary  corps,  by 
whom  the  combatants  were  separated  and  carried  to  hos¬ 
pital,  where  Hughes  recovered  from  his  wound,  and 
somewhat  improved  his  temper ;  but  for  his  stutter  tliero 
was  no  hope  whatever — that  was  beyond  cure. 

The  indignation  of  an  Irishman  at  the  injury  done  to 
his  property  by  an  artillery  duel  in  Charleston  Harbor 
■was  narrated  to  me  with. great  relish  by  a  countryman  of 
his.  The  property  consisted  of  a  house  and  lot  for  which 
the  owner  had  paid  $1,500  in  ‘  hard  cash.’  The  house 
was  within  150  yards  of  Fort  Moultrie,  on  Sullivan’s 
Island,  and  almost  in  the  line  of  fire  from  Fort  Sumter. 
The  firing  was  brisk,  and  many  a  ball  whisked  by,  one 
occasionally  passing  through  the  tenement,  or  taking  a 
fragment  off  a  chimney,  which  seemed  to  be  a  favourite 
target  for  practice.  The  owner,  who  would  remain  to 
*'  watch  his  property,’  was  remonstrated  with,  and  advised 
to  leave  the  place,  and  not  risk  his  life.  c  Bisk  my  life ! 
I  care  more  about  my  house ;  and  the  devil  a  one  of  me 
will  leave  it  while  them  blackguards  are  battering  at  it  this 
way.’  For  a  day  and  a  night  he  walked  up  and  down, 
‘protecting  his  property,’  and  occasionally  relieving  his 
mind  by  cursing  Major  Anderson,  to  whom  he  attributed 
personal  spite  and  malignity  of  the  blackest  dye.  As  a  tile 
or  a  bit  of  the  chimney  was  carried  away,  he  would  exclaim, 

‘  Oh  blood!  isn’t  this  a  mighty  hard  case  ?  Why  then,  Major 
Anderson,  may  ould  Nick  fly  away  with  you,  and  that  you 
may  never  come  back — that’s  my  prayer,  sure  enough.’ — 
‘There  again! — there’s  more  of  your  purty  tricks!  The 
devil  run  buck -hunting  with  you,  Major  Anderson.’  ‘  My 
curse  on  you,  hot  and  heavy,  Major  Anderson,  that  wouldn’t 
leave  a  decent  man’s  little  property  alone.’  At  length, 
one  unlucky  shot  tore  away  five  feet  of  the  chimney,  which 
came  clattering  to  the  ground  in  a  shower  of  bricks  and 


5GG 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


mortar.  ‘There  now!  I  said  he’d  do  it,  and  he’s  done  ii 
without  doubt.  Why  then,  Major  Anderson,  may  I  never 
be  father  over  my  children  if  I  won’t  make  you  pay  for 
this  work,  if  there’s  law  to  be  had  for  love  or  money. 
You’re  in  for  it  now,  my  tine  joker — and  I’m  the  lad  to  salt 
you — see  if  I  don’t!’ 

Fortunately  no  amount  of  cannonading  could  destroy 
the  ‘lot,’  and  the  injury  to  the  chimney,  with  an  odd 
ventilator  or  two  in  the  shape  of  shot-holes,  were  the 
entire  results  of  Major  Anderson’s  ‘  mean  spite  ’  against 
the  owner  of  this  critically  circumstanced  property ;  so, 
when  the  chimney  was  rebuilt,  and  the  holes  were  filled 
up,  the  temper  of  the  proprietor  was  restored  to  its  ac¬ 
customed  serenity.  And  the  time  even  came  when  he 
could  tell  with  much  humour  how  sturdily  he  defended 
his  castle  from  the  guns  of  Fort  Sumter. 

I  was  much  amused  at  hearing  a  crusty  American  over¬ 
seer  of  the  genuine  old  school  tell  an  anecdote  of  an  Irish¬ 
man  with  whom  he  was  well  acquainted.  At  the  battle  of 
Manassas,  this  Irishman,  whose  name  was  Morriss,  of  the 
18th  Mississippi,  when  the  order  was  given  to  his  company 
to  lie  down  and  reload,  and  thus  allow  the  storm  of  shell 
,  and  balls  to  pass  over  their  heads,  retained  his  erect  posi¬ 
tion,  crying  out — ‘By  japers!  I  didn’t  come  here  to  lie 
down  and  fight ;  I  came  here  to  stand  up  and  fight  like  a 
man.’  His  clothes  were  riddled  with  bullets,  and  his  flesh 
was  torn  in  a  few  places,  but  he  escaped  all  serious  injury, 
as  if  by  a  miracle.  After  a  hard  chuckle  at  the  fun  of  the 
thing,  the  Southerner  added — ‘  From  now  on,  that  Irish¬ 
man  could  get  along  without  ever  doing  another  lick  of 
work ;  but  Morriss  is  an  industrious  man,  and  a  good 
gardener,  and  he  can  help  himself  quite  enough.’ 

Of  the  various  conflicts  of  which  the  harbour  of  Charles¬ 
ton  was  the  scene,  that  which  took  place  on  the  9th  of 
October,  1863,  when  an  attack  was  made  on  Fort  Sumter, 
then  in  the  possession  of  the  Confederates,  may  by  men- 


DEFENDED  WITH  BRICKBATS. 


5(17 


tioned,  on  account  of  the  rather  novel  mode  of  defence 
successfully  adopted  by  a  portion  of  the  garrison.  The 
United  States  troops,  under  Gilmore,  were  at  Morris 
Island,  and  the  celebrated  Dahlgren  had  command  of  the 
fieet.  Fort  Sumter  was  defended  by  Major  Elliot ;  the 
garrison  consisting  of  the  Charleston  battalion — which 
was  ‘pretty  much  Irish’ — with  two  companies  of  Artillery. 
The  Old  Irish  Volunteers,  the  representatives  of  an  organi¬ 
sation  dating  back  more  than  seventy  years,  were  entrusted 
with  the  defence  of  the  east  wall  or  rampart.  About  one 
o’clock  at  night  the  Captain  in  command  of  the  Irish  Vol¬ 
unteers  discovered  a  small  boat  evidently  reconnoitering, 
and  at  once  gave  the  alarm.  In  a  few  moments  after,  a 
large  body  of  Federals,  aided  by  600  men  from  the  fleet, 
commenced  a  vigorous  assault.  The  fort  was  not  taken 
by  surprise,  owing  to  the  vigilance  of  the  Irish  Captain, 
whose  command  faced  the  channel :  and  the  enemy  were 
fired  upon  before  they  could  effect  a  landing.  In  a  short 
time  a  brisk  attack  was  made  on  the  southern  and  eastern 
face.  The  southern  face  was  opposite  to  Morris  Island, 
and  was  attacked  by  the  land  force.  In  little  more  than  a 
quarter  of  an  hour  the  Federal  fire  on  the  east  side  slack- 
ened,  while  it  was  sustained  with  warmth  on  the  south. 
This  cessation  of  fire  on  the  eastern  side  excited  the 
renewed  suspicion  of  the  Captain  in  command ;  and  on  re¬ 
connoitering,  it  was  found  that  a  number  of  the  attacking 
force  had  effected  a  lodgment  on,  or  rather  in,  the  face  of 
the  rampart,  which  in  this  place  had  been  hollowed  out 
by  previous  and  repeated  bombardments.  The  assailants, 
who  were  thus  out  of  the  range  of  fire,  and  who  believed 
that  the  fort  was  almost  in  their  possession,  laughed  with 
derisive  scorn  when  called  on  from  above  to  surrender. 
Lodged  in  the  very  face  of  the  wall  or  rampart,  not  only 
were  they  thus  out  of  the  reach  of  the  guns,  but  not  even 
a  rille  could  be  conveniently  brought  to  bear  against  them 
What  were  the  defenders  to  do,  in  this  case  ?  ‘  Why,  pelt 


6G8 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


them  out  of  that,  to  be  sure.’  The  men  were  ordered  to 
lay  down  their  arms,  for  the  moment  valueless,  and  make 
the  best  use  they  could  of  the  fragments  of  brickwork 
with  which  the  ramparts  were  abundantly  supplied.  The 
Old  Irish  Volunteers  entered  into  the  fun  of  the  thing 
amazing!}  ;  it  was  quite  an  unexpected  source  of  diversion, 
and  so  they  vigorously  proceeded  to  roll  masses  of  masonry 
down  the  face  of  the  rampart,  and  pelt  brickbats  at  the 
partly-hidden  foe  from  every  possible  vantage-ground, 
while  joke  and  jibe,  most  galling  to  the  assailants,  ran 
along  the  line,  like  a  brisk  fire  of  small  arms.  The 
amusement  was  pleasant  enough  for  the  gentlemen  on 
the  rampart,  but  not  at  all  so  agreeable  to  their  un¬ 
expected  visitors  below ;  and  after  enduring  the  novel 
species  of  artillery  as  long  as  they  possibly  could,  the 
latter  surrendered.  103  of  the  enemy,  including  10  or  12 
officers,  yielded  to  the  gentle  influence  of  the  brickbats, 
not  being  desirous  of  any  longer  keeping  up  the  game  of 
‘cock-throw,’  of  which  the  fun  was  altogether  one-sided, 
and  against  them. 

All  apprehension  of  further  danger  being  at  an  end,  the 
Irishmen  made  the  Federal  officers  welcome  to  the  best 
entertainment  in  their  power  to  afford.  But  the  rough 
fare  did  not  seem  to  please  the  captives,  one  of  whom 
rather  superciliously  remarked,  that  he  understood  the 
Southerners  had  the  character  of  being  a  hospitable 
people  ;  but  if  they  treated  their  guests  on  other  occasions 
no  better  than  they  treated  them  then,  they  might  possibly 
forfeit  their  character  for  that  virtue. 

The  Irish  Captain,  after  making  a  punctilious  bow, 
worthy  of  a  Chesterfield,  thus  replied: — 

‘Well,  Sir,  I  would  be  sorry  that,  through  me,  the 
State  should  lose  its  well-earned  reputation  for  hospitality; 
but  it  is  usual,  even  in  the  South,  when  visitors,  especially 
a  considerable  number,  as  in  your  case,  intend  to  honour 
a  gentleman  by  taking  up  their  quarters  at  his  hous« 


‘  NOBLESSE  OBLIGE/ 


6G9 

that  they  should  give  some  intimation  of  tlieir  intention  ; 
or  if  they  were  resolved  on  making  a  “surprise  party”  of 
it,  as  was  evidently  the  intention  in  the  present  instance, 
they  should  provide  for  themselves.’ 

The  joke  was  once  more  against  the  assailants  ;  but  as  it 
was  not  so  bad  as  the  brickbats,  it  was  received  in  good 
humour,  and  captors  and  captives  were  soon  on  the  best 
terms. 

The  same  officer  who  indulged  his  men  in  the  exciting- 
game  of  brickbats  on  the  eastern  rampart  of  Fort  Sumter, 
was  in  command  of  a  sand-bank  battery  of  three  guns, 
situate  between  two  narrow  marshes,  the  solid  land  being 
about  eighty  yards  in  front.  It  was  one  of  the  most 
important  positions  in  the  defence  of  Charleston,  and  was 
not  taken  until  the  evacuation  of  the  city.  On  the  16th 
of  June,  1862,  the  Federals  made  a  desperate  attempt  to 
take  this  battery,  but  were  foiled  by  the  pluck  with  which 
the  Irishmen  defended  it  against  overwhelming  odds  until 
they  were  reinforced ;  the  body  of  the  Confederates  being- 
800  yards  distant  when  the  attack  commenced.  And  never 
was  pluck  more  called  for  than  on  this  occasion,  owing  to 
the  panic  which  seized  the  commander  of  the  picket  in  front 
of  the  fort.  That  officer  suddenly  rushed  in,  right  over  the 
battery,  having  made  no  resistance  to  the  advancing  enemy, 
whose  numbers  scared  away  his  wits  for  the  moment. 

‘  What  means  this  conduct  ?  ’  sternly  enquired  the  Irish¬ 
man. 

‘Oh,  you  can  do  nothing — it’s  impossible — you  must 
retire — the  enemy  are  in  overwhelming  strength — it’s  no 
use — it’s  madness  to  resist  them — you  can  do  nothing 
against  such  desperate  odds.’ 

‘  You  can  retire  if  you  please,  and  nobody  will  be  any¬ 
thing  the  wiser ;  but  if  I  left  my  post,  the  whole  world 
would  know  of  it ;  and  sooner  than  do  anything  that  would 
affect  the  honour  and  reputation  of  Irishmen,  or  of  Ireland, 
I’d  stay  here  till  Doomsday.’ 


570 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


This  was  no  vain  boast;  for,  after  expending  their  am- 
munition,  the  Irishmen  fought  with  clubbed  muskets,  and 
with  such  savage  energy,  that  the  enemy  were  kept  at  bay, 
and  the  important  position  held  .until  the  body  of  the 
Confederates  had  time  to  come  up.  Then  commenced 
a  battle  which  fiercely  raged  from  the  early  dawn  of  that 
summer’s  morning  to  half-past  8  o’clock,  when  the  Fede- 
rals  were  compelled  to  retire.  It  was  known  as  the  Battle 
of  Secessionville,  and  was  admitted  to  be  one  of  the  se¬ 
verest  of  the  war  in  the  South.* 

At  one  of  the  battles  in  Virginia  a  company  of  Con¬ 
federates  charged  a  company  of  Federals.  The  latter 
yielded  to  the  impetuosity  of  the  charge,  gave  way,  and 
fled,  all  save  one  man  alone,  who  said — ‘  You  may  kill  me 
if  you  plaze,  but  not  all  the  rebel  army  will  make  me  run.’ 
The  cool  courage  of  the  soldier  at  once  disarmed  hostility. 
‘  Then  wiU  you  surrender  ?  ’  he  was  asked.  ‘  Oh,  yes,  there 
is  no  disgrace  in  that,’  he  replied;  £ I  surrender.’  So  long 

*  In  one  of  the  engagements  which  have  made  Charleston  memorable  in  the 
history  of  the  world,  there  fell  one  of  the  most  promising  young  soldiers  of  the 
war, — Captain  John  Mitchell,  son  of  the  famous  Irishman  of  that  name  ;  who 
lost  two  of  his  sons  in  battle,  while  a  third  was  repeatedly  and  desperately 
wounded.  Captain  John  Mitchell  was  the  idol  of  his  men,  for  his  gay  and 
gallant  spirit,  his  wit,  his  humour,  his  playfulness  and  gentleness  of  disposition, 
combined  with  the  courage  of  a  lion.  How  he  fell,  and  what  was  the  estimate 
formed  of  him,  will  be  best  told  in  the  words  of  General  Beauregard,  the  illus¬ 
trious  defender  of  Charleston  : — 

‘Near  Petersburg.  Va.,  August  6,  1864. 

‘  Dear  Sir, — I  trust  the  condition  of  affairs  here  will  be  my  excuse  for  not 
having  addressed  you  sooner  relative  to  the  irreparable  loss  you  sustained  lately 
in  the  death  of  your  gallant  son,  Capt.  John  Mitchell.  He  served  under  my 
orders  during  the  most  trying  periods  of  the  siege  of  Charleston.  At  Fort  Sumter, 
Battery  Simkins,  and  on  Morris  Island,  he  displayed  such  coolness,  energy,  and 
intelligence,  that  I  selected  him,  from  many  aspirants  ambitious  of  the  honour, 
to  replace  Col.  Elliott  in  the  command  of  Fort  Sumter  whenever  circumstances 
compelled  that  gallant  officer  to  absent  himself  from  that  important  post. 

‘In  your  bereavement  you  should  derive  consolation  from  the  thought,  that 
your  son  fell  at  his  post,  gloriously  battling  for  the  independence  of  his  country 
carrying  with  him  the  regret  of  his  friends  and  the  respect  of  his  enemies. 

‘  I  remain,  with  respect,  your  most  obedient  servant, 

‘  G.  T.  Beauregard. 


‘  John  Mitchell,  Esq.’ 


PAT'S  LITTLE  GAME. 


57\ 


as  lie  remained  a  prisoner,  he  was  a  great  favourite  with  his 
captors — one  of  whom  I  heard  narrate  the  circumstance. 

To  the  quick-wittedness  and  coolness  of  an  Irishman  the 
Federals  were  indebted  for  their  preservation  from  no 
small  disaster,  and  the  Confederates  for  serious  loss  and 
great  discouragement.  Some  time  after  Fort  Pulaski,  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Savannah  river,  had  been  taken  from  the 
Confederates,  a  small  picket  boat,  steered  by  a  midshipman, 
and  rowed  by  four  sailors — two  Georgians  and  two  Irish¬ 
men — was  making  its  way  cautiously  in  the  direction  of 
the  fort,  ‘to  see  how  the  land  lay.’  The  Irishmen  were 
Federalists,  who  had  been  pressed  into  the  Confederate 
navy,  and  were  then,  against  their  inclination,  serving  on 
board  the  c  Atlantic,’  a  blockade-runner,  which  had  been 
converted  into  an  iron-clad,  and  still  preserved  her  fast- 
steaming  qualities.  The  reconnoissance  had  been  made, 
and  the  boat  was  on  her  way  back,  when  the  officer,  taking 
oil  his  pea-jacket,  called  out  to  the  bowman — ‘  Here,  Pat ! 
catch  hold  of  this,  and  stow  it  under  the  bow;’  and  he 
added — ‘  Take  care  how  you  handle  it,  you  Irish  son  of  a 
bitch ;  there  are  revolvers  in  it.’  Quick  as  thought,  the 
pistols  were  taken  from  the  coat  by  Pat,  who  handed  one 
of  them  to  his  countryman,  and  pointed  the  other  at  the 
midshipman,  exclaiming  in  a  voice  expressive  of  merriment 
and  triumph — ‘Now,  you  son  of  a  bitch,  steer  us  straight 
for  Fort  Pulaski,  and’ — turning  to  the  Georgians — ‘you 
sons  of  bitches,  pull  us  there,  or  we’ll  blow  the  tops  off 
your  bloody  heads  I’  The  gallant  young  fellow  had  no 
option  but  to  do  what  he  was  ordered  by  the  possessors  of 
his  revolvers,  and  the  boat  was  rowed  right  into  the 
landing-place  of  the  enemy.  Pat  was  brought  before  the 
officer  in  command,  to  whom  he  imparted  the  important 
intelligence  that  the  ‘  Atlantic,’  for  which  the  Federals  had 
been  constantly  on  the  look-out,  was  next  morning  to  pass 
through  St.  Augustine’s  Creek,  into  Warsaw  Sound,  thus 
avoiding  the  fort,  and  getting  into  the  open  sea,  where  she 


572 


THE  IRIS  II  IN  AMERICA. 


was  certain  to  inflict  enormous  damage  on  the  commerce 
of  the  Union,  and  sink  any  vessel  that  did  not  equal  her  in 
v  speed  or  in  power.  This  was  startling*  intelligence  indeed, 
for  there  was  but  a  single  gun-boat  at  the  Creek,  and  this 
the  ‘Atlantic’  might  disregard,  or  could  destroy.  Acting 
upon  the  information,  an  Irish  officer  of  high  rank,  who 
happened  to  be  at  the  time  in  the  fort,  at  once  started  on 
horseback,  and  never  spared  whip  or  spur  till  he  arrived 
at  Port  Royal  Bay,  where  a  Federal  fleet  *was  stationed. 
In  a  short  time  two  iron-clads  and  two  heavy  transports 
were  steaming  for  the  Creek,  where  the  ‘Atlantic’  was 
caught  as  if  in  a  trap.  The  ‘Irish  son  of  a  bitch’  had  the 
best  of  the  ‘  little  game.’ 

I  heard  an  admirable  description  given  by  an  Irishman 
in  the  Confederate  service — an  officer  who  had  served  with 
great  distinction — of  his  countrymen  as  soldiers.  The 
portrait  is  true  to  the  life,  and  as  faithfully  represents  the 
soldier  of  the  Union  as  the  champion  of  the  ‘Lost  Cause.’ 
I  heard  the  same,  though  not  in  the  same  words,  from 
Americans  at  both  sides  of  the  line.  My  friend  thus  hits 
oil*  his  compatriots  as  belligerents  : — 

‘My  experience  of  the  Irish  in  our  army  was  this — - 
that  they  could  endure  more  than  any  men  on  the  face  of 
the  earth.  They  would  march  all  day,  and  the  officer  in 
charge  would  have  trouble  enough  to  keep  them  from 
playing  tricks  on  one  another  ;  and  when  all  others,  tired 
by  bodily  fatigue,  would  lie  down,  indifferent  to  what 
would  happen,  they  would  be  as  lively  as  ever ;  and  if 
there  were  a  chance  of  any  devilment  up,  they  were  bound 
to  be  in  the  midst  of  it.  This  is  the  universal  opinion  of 
the  officers  of  the  Confederate  army  with  respect  to  the 
Irish  under  their  command.  They  were  sometimes  difficult 
to  manage,  but  the  fault  did  not  generally  lie  with  them. 
Their  officer  should  be  worthy  of  their  respect.  The  first 
condition  of  their  confidence  is,  that  he  must  be  worthv  of 
it — that  he  is  brave  and  daring — that  he  can  be  trusted— 


IRISH  DEVOTEDNESS. 


573 


that  he  won’t  shirk  his  duty — that  he  is  ready  himself 
to  do  wThat  he  asks  them  to  do.  Satisfy  them  on  this 
essential  point,  and  there  is  nothing  their  leader  cannot 
do  with  them,  or  that  they  won’t  do  for  him.  They  would 
readily  die  for  him  ;  and  if  there  be  a  bit  of  fresh  meat, 
or  a  chicken,  or  other  delicacy  to  be  had  by  foraging — 
and  they  are  first-rate  at  that — he  is  bound  to  have  his 
share  of  it.  There  are  no  keener  judges  of  an  officer  than 
they  are ;  and  wToe  to  the  officer  wiio  excites  their  con¬ 
tempt.’ 

What  wonderful  devotion  to  a  brave  officer  by  a  brave 
Irish  soldier  does  not  the  following  present !  I  give  it  in 
the  words  it  was  told  to  me  : — 

My  brother,  Brevet  Lieut.-Col.  James  F.  M‘Elhone,  Regular  Army, 
at  Gaines’  Mills,  Va.,  while  commanding  the  colour  company,  14  Inf. 
U.S.A.,  then  1st  Lieut.,  17  years  of  age,  was  wounded  late  in  the  auy 
frith  a  Minie  ball  in  the  side,  at  the  time  supposed  to  be  mortal.  His 
‘striker,’  Michael  M'Grath  by  name,  who  had  brought  to  the  ‘ief- 
tinint  ’  a  pot  of  hot  tea  during  a  warm  fire  from  the  enemy,  had  no 
harsher  expression,  when  a  bullet  spilled  the  regretted  beverage  upon 
the  ground,  than  ‘  Damn  ye  !  ye  didn’t  know  what  a  divii’s  own  time  I 
had  to  get  the  hot  wather,  or  ye  wouldn’t  have  done  it.’  This  noble 
fellow  remained  with  his  officer  upon  the  field,  went  with  him  to 
Savage’s  Station  hospital,  was  a  faithful  attendant  during  the  battle  that 
raged  there  during  the  ensuing  Sunday,  accompanied  him  as  prisoner 
to  Richmond,  feigning  to  be  wounded  so  as  to  prevent  separation, 
built  a  covering  of  blankets  in  the  railroad  depdt  to  save  him  from 
rain,  successfully  exerted  in  every  way  a  fertile  ingenuity  to  get  the 
best  in  a  town  crowded  to  suffocation  with  wounded  of  both  armies 
after  the  seven  days’  battles  ;  and  finally,  when  my  brother  was  brought 
on  parole  to  Baltimore  by  sea,  and  located  in  a  private  house  used  as  a 
hospital,  this  Irish  soldier  I  found  sitting  by  his  bedside,  fanning  his 
fevered  brow,  and  as  gentle  a  nurse  almost  as  any  woman  could  be. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  of  Sunday,  29th  June,  1SG2,  as  I  have  already 
said,  the  battle  raged  fiercely  around  the  hospital,  some  being  killed 
and  wounded  near  the  building.  My  brother  and  M-Grath  saw  with 
auxiety  the  increasing  chances  of  their  falling  into  the  hands  of  the 
enemy.  Up  came  the  G9th  New  York  (an  Irish  Regiment),  to  the 
last  charge.  My  brother,  now  no  more,  has  related  often  that,  for  the 
time,  he  forgot  his  own  sad  plight  and  acute  suffering.  Thoio  was  a 


574 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


ringing  hurrah  as  \he  hot  Irish  closed  with  the  foe.  Now  the  Union 
flag  and  the  green  flag  of  Ireland  are  seen  to  pulsate  madly  forward  ; 
there  is  a  temporary  check  ;  the  colours  stagger,  disappear,  soon  they 
are  again  lifted,  and  sweep  onward  till  they  mark  a  position  gained 
and  a  battle  won.  But  as  the  regiment  wras  going  into  the  very  ‘jaws 
of  death,’  one  man  in  the  rear  rank  cried  out  to  the  other,  ‘  Toomey, 
man,  step  out,  and  don’t  b#  afraid,’  to  which  instantly  came  the  angry 
reply,  ‘  What  sir !  wait  till  this  battle  is  over,  and  I’ll  smash  your 
larn  mug  for  you.’ 

Innumerable  stories  are  told  of  the  Irishman’s  irrepres¬ 
sible  love  of  fight.  There  is  not  a  town  that  has  not  its 
hero  of  a  hundred  tales  illustrative  of  this  grand  passion 
of  the  race.  There  was  a  soldier  in  the  South  who,  during 
a  lull,  would  be  ‘detailed’  to  make  shoes  for  the  men; 
but,  whenever  there  was  a  certainty  of  Terry  Nolan’s 
hearing  ‘the  music’ — of  the  whistling  ride-bullets  and 
the  singing  shells — then  he  was  seen  trotting  towards  his 
line,  with  his  rifle  on  his  shoulder,  ready  to  take  his  part 
in  the  concert.  Terry’s  appearance  was  quite  as  conclu¬ 
sive  as  an  order  of  the  day,  for  with  infallible  scent  he 
sniffed  the  battle  from  afar  ;  and  as  the  valliant  Crispin 
took  his  place  in  his  company  he  was  invariably  hailed 
with  a  cheer.  The  men  knew  they  were  in  for  it  when 
Terry  showed  his  Celtic  visage,  with  the  light  of  battle 
gleaming  in  his  eyes. 

‘Why  then,  Captain,’  said  a  great  strapping  Irishman  to 
the  commander  of  his  company,  as  he  scratched  his  head 
with  a  kind  of  bashfulness  that  sat  rather  ill  on  him, — 
‘  why  then,  Captain,  could  you  tell  us  when  we’re  going  to 
have  something  to  do  ?  The  boys  want  a  fight  bad  ;  they 
hadn’t  one  now  for  a  long  time,  and  sure  they  can’t  be 
always  without  a  scrimmage  of  some  kind  or  another,  just 
to  keep  their  hand  in,  as  one  may  say.’ 

‘  I  tell  you,  my  man,’  replied  the  Captain,  ‘  you’ll  have 
quite  enough  of  it  soon.’ 

‘  F aith,  Captain,  I’m  thinking  it’s  you  don’t  care  for  it 
yourself,  and  that’s  the  raison  the  poor  boys  don’t  get  it,’ 


THE  LOVE  OF  FIGHT. 


575 


replied  the  disappointed  ambassador,  with  a  look  of  un¬ 
disguised  contempt. 

That  captain  did  not  remain  long  with  his  company. 

A  colonel  told  me  that,  previous  to  one  of  the  famous 
battles  of  the  war,  he  had  given  his  second  horse  in  care 
of  his  orderly,  an  Irishman,  named  Moloney,  with  positive 
instructions  to  keep  it  for  him  in  reserve;  but  that  scarce¬ 
ly  had  the  firing  well  commenced  than  he  saw  Moloney 
spurring  his,  the  colonel’s,  horse,  brandishing  his  sword, 
and  rushing  into  the  thick  of  the  fight.  The  colonel  could 
not  sacrifice  his  horse,  even  to  gratify  his  orderly’s  warlike 
ardour;  so  poor  Moloney  was  captured,  and  ingloriously 
led  back.  ‘How  dare  you,  sir,  disobey  my  orders?’  asked 
the  indignant  colonel.  ‘Why,  colonel,  I  felt  I’d  be  dis¬ 
graced  if  I  hadn’t  a  dash  at  them  with  the  boys.  Yes, 
faith,  colonel,  I  could  never  hold  up  my  head  again.’  ‘It 
was  a  bare-faced  excuse,  sir,’  said  the  colonel,  when  telling 
the  story, — ‘it  was  nothing  but  sheer  love  of  fight;  for 
Moloney  hadn’t  to  make  his  character  then — he  had  a  good 
record  long  before.’ 

Even  when  wounded  and  sick  in  hospital,  the  ‘music’ 
was  too  attractive  to  be  resisted,  if  they  could  contrive  to 
get  on  their  legs  at  all.  An  American  officer  mentioning 
instances  of  the  kind,  said: — 

‘At  the  Battle  of  Shiloh  an  Irishman  of  this  company 
received  a  very  severe  flesh  wound  in  the  shoulder,  and 
was  carried  back  to  the  Infirmary  depot,  as  all  supposed, 
disabled  for  several  months.  We  became  hotly  engaged 
soon  after,  and  to  my  surprise  I  saw  this  man  in  the  ranks 
of  his  company,  fighting  like  a  tiger,  the  blood  running 
freely  from  his  arm.  As  soon  as  I  could,  I  enquired  of  him 
why  he  was  not  at  the  hospital.  ‘Oh,  colonel,’  he  said, 

‘  when  I  heard  the  guns  going  I  was  afraid  the  boys  would 
be  lonesome  without  me,  so  you  see  I  came  to  keep  them 
company;  besides,  my  arm  is  not  so  bad,  after  all.’ 

It  would  be  difficult  to  say  at  which  side  of  the  line 


57  f. 


THE  IRISH  IN*  AMERICA 


tLe  fighting  qualities  of  the  Irish  were  held  in  highest 
esteem  by  those  who  were  opposed  to  them:  for  while 
the  Southern  has  often  said  ‘  Send  swuv  tout  damned 
Irish,  and  well  whip  von  welV  the  Northern  as  fre¬ 
quently  said.  'If  all  in  the  South  fought  hhe  the  Irish. 
Secession  would  long  since  be  an  accomplished  fact." 
General  Patrick  Cleburne,  confessedly  one  of  the  best  men 
of  the  war,  used  to  say  that  ne  never  had  tougher  work 
than  when  he  met  the  Northern  Irish — that  Sweenev  mve 

i  •  «  C 

him  the  hardest  lighting  he  ever  had. 

A  general  who  commanded  a  Southern  brigade,  in  which 
naif  that  is  o,009  out  erf  the  10,0Q0  wlxo  ftm  the  to 
time  recruited  its  ranks  as  volunteers — were  Irish,  thns 
•poke  of  them  to  me  : — 

'If  to-morrow  I  wanted  to  win  a  reputation.  I  would 
have  Irish  soldiers  in  preference  to  any  others ;  and  I  tell 
yon  why.  first,  they  have  more  dash,  more  kh t  than 
any  otner  troops  that  I  know  of ;  then  thev  are  more 
cheerful  and  enduring — nothing  ran  detress  them  Next. 

1  *  ~  ~~  —  *  man  never  failed  to  wash 

himself  and  his  clothes.  Not  only  were  they  cheerful  tut 

taey  were  submissive  to  discipline  wnen  once  brohen  in _ 

and  where  they  had  good  officers  that  was  easily  done  :  but 
once  they  had  confidence  in  their  officers,  their  attachment 
to  them  was  unbounded.  And  confidence  was  established 
the  moment  they  saw  their  general  in  the  fight  with  them. 
Afterwards  they  wonld  say — “You  keep  back.  General— 
tell  ns  where  to  go,  and  well  be  sure  to  go  ;  but  we  don’t 
want  yon  to  be  killed;  for,  faith,  we  don't  know  what 
wonld  become  of  ns  then.”  They  required  strict  discipline; 
but  they  always  admitted  the  justice  of  their  punishment 
when  they  believed  their  commander  was  impartial;  and 
they  never  were  sullen,  or  bore  malice.  There  was  one 
great  eminent  gi  strength  in  these  men — thev  were  volun¬ 
teers.  every  man  of  them  Many  could  have  been  excused 
on  the  ground  of  their  not  being  American  citizens,  as  not 


TESTIMONIES  TO  THE  IRISH  SOLDIER. 


577 


more  than  one-third  of  them  had  a  right  to  vote  at  the 
time  ;  but  they  joined  of  their  own  free  will — no  Irishman 
was  conscripted.  I  repeat,  if  I  had  to  take  from  one  to 
10,000  men  to  make  a  reputation  with,  I’d  take  the  same 
men  as  I  had  in  the  war — Irishmen  from  the  city,  the 
levees,  the  river,  the  railroads,  the  canals,  or  from  ditching 
and  fencing  on  the  plantations.  They  make  the  finest 
soldiers  that  ever  shouldered  a  musket.’  And  this  was  the 
testimony  of  one  of  the  fiercest  fighters  of  the  war. 

Another  officer  of  rank  says  what  he  thinks  of  the  Irish: — 

*  My  opinion  of  the  Irish  is  partial.  I  commanded  many 
of  them,  and  I  can  appreciate  their  value.  None  were 
more  gallant,  or  none  more  faithful  to  our  cause  ;  and  it 
was  owing  to  there  being  so  many  of  them  at  the  other 
side  that  ive  failed.  Those  I  commanded  were  some  of 
the  best  soldiers  I  ever  saw ;  but  I  think  they  are  better 
when  they  are  by  themselves,  in  companies  or  regiments. 
Good  soldiers  indeed !  they  worked,  and  fought,  and 
starved,  just  as  required  of  them.  The  feeling  of  the 
South  is  of  the  warmest  character  to  them.  If  the  war 
started  afresh,  I’d  raise  an  entirely  Irish  regiment,  in 
preference  to  any  other.  They  would  be  more  under 
discipline,  and  could  be  controlled  better  than  a  mixed 
regiment.  I  admit  that  when  they  are  in  the  camp,  and 
there  is  nothing  for  them  to  do,  they  may  get  into  mischief ; 
but  in  the  field  they  are  thoroughly  reliable.’ 

Here  is  the  testimony  of  one  who  knew  the  Irish  well. 
It  is  a  chaplain  wdio  speaks :  and  though  he  saw  them  in 
battle,  he  knew  more  of  them  when  the  fight  was  over  : — 

‘  Commanders  prefer  them,  not  only  for  their  bravery, 
but  their  cheerfulness,  and  for  their  cleanliness  and  neat¬ 
ness  as  soldiers.  When  others  would  be  resting,  the  Irish¬ 
men  would  be  washing  their  clothes,  and  would  then  play 
games  in  their  buff  till  they  Avere  dried.  They  were  true 
soldiers — tigers  in  battle,  lambs  after.  It  was  beautiful 

to  witness  their  conduct  to  the  enemy ;  they  were  kind  as 

25 


/>78 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


women  to  them,  assisting  the  wounded,  dividing  their  raticna 
with  them — losing  every  feeling  of  anger  and  hostility.’ 

Testimonies  without  number  might  be  quoted  ;  but  one 
from  a  soldier  whose  fame  is  European,  may  well  stand  in 
the  place  of  many.  It  is  General  Beauregard  who  thus 
gravely  records  his  deliberate  and  weighty  judgment  of  the 
Irish  :  ‘  Relative  to  the  soldierly  qualities  of  the  Irish  wdio 

‘  took  a  part  in  our  late  war,  I  beg  to  state,  that  they  dis- 
‘  played  the  sturdy  and  manly  courage  of  the  English,  com- 
‘  bined  with  the  impetuous  and  buoyant  character  of  the 
‘  French.  They  required,  at  times,  only  discipline,  which  is 
‘  always  attained  under  good  officers,  to  be  equal  to  the 
‘  best  soldiers  of  any  country.  They  always  exhibited  on 
‘the  field  of  battle  great  gallantry,  and  during  the  opera • 
‘  tions  of  a  campaign  showed  much  patience  and  fortitude. 

*  They  joined  the  Confederate  ranks  at  the  first  call  of  the 

*  country  for  volunteers,  and  remained  to  the  last,  devoted 
‘  and  true  to  the  cause  they  had  zealously  espoused.  They 
‘  were  found  to  be  always  the  worthy  companions  of  the 
‘  gallant  Confederate  soldiers  with  whom  they  fought,  side 
‘  by  side,  during  over  four  years  of  an  internecine  struggle.’ 

‘Whichever  way,’  says  a  Northern  general  with  a 
splendid  ‘  record,’  ‘  we  turn  for  the  history  of  Irish  Ameri¬ 
cans,  the  case  is  the  same  ;  we  meet  with  nothing  but  cause 
for  honest  pride — they  are  true  patriots,  good  citizens,  and 
splendid  soldiers.’ 

‘  Ah,  Sir !  ’  said  General  Longstreet,  whom  I  met  in  New 
Orleans,  ‘that  was  one  of  the  handsomest  things  in  the 
whole  war !  ’  What  was  this  handsomest  thing  of  the  war  ? 
The  manner  in  which  the  Irish  Brigade  breasted  the  death 
storm  from  St.  Mary’s  Heights  of  Fredericksburg.  Six 
times  in  the  face  of  a  withering  fire,  before  which  whole 
ranks  were  mowed  down  as  corn  before  the  sickle,  did  the 
Irish  Brigade  rush  up  that  hill — rush  to  inevitable  death.  ‘  I 
looked  with  my  field-glass,1  said  the  Adjutant-General  of 
General  Hancock’s  staff,  ‘and  I  looked  for  a  long  time 


THE  HANDSOMEST  THING  OF  THE  WAR. 


57H 


before  I  was  certain  of  what  I  saw.  I  at  first  thought 
that  the  men  of  the  Brigade  had  lain  down  to  allow  the 
showers  of  shot  and  shell  to  pass  over  them,  for  they  lay 
in  regular  lines.  I  looked  for  some  movement,  some  stir — 
a  hand  or  a  foot  in  motion  ;  but  no — they  were  dead — dead 
every  man  of  them — cut  down  like  grass.’  In  these  six 
desperate  charges  that  Brigade  was  almost  annihilated. 
But  there  was  no  flinching  for  a  second.  Again  and  again 
they  braved  that  hell-storm,  and  would  have  done  so  again 
and  again  ;  but  of  the  1,200  that  bore  a  green  badge  in  their 
caps  that  morning,  nearly  a  thousand  of  them  lay  on  the 
bloody  field,  literally  mown  down  in  ranks.  Little  more 
than  200  rations  were  that  night  issued  to  the  remnant  of 
that  heroic  band.  cIt  was  the  admiration  of  the  whole 
army.’  ‘Never  was  there  anything  superior  to  it.’  But 
General  Longstreet’s  eulogium — ‘  It  was  the  handsomest 
thing  of  the  war,’  leaves  nothing  unexpressed.  Behind 
the  stone  wall,  from  which  rained  the  deadliest  fire, 
delivered  within  range,  and  with  terrible  precision,  were 
men  of  the  same  blood  and  race  as  those  who  were  thus 
wasting  their  lives  in  unavailing  devotion.  The  Georgian 
regiment  which  lined  that  fatal  barrier  was  mostly  Irish  : 
and  from  one  of  those  who  took  part  in  that  day’s  ter¬ 
rific  strife,  I  heard  some  particulars  of  painful  interest. 
Colonel  Robert  M’Millan  was  in  command  ;  and  though 
death  was  in  his  family,  he  would  not  quit  his  post  on  that 
eventful  day.  When  the  Brigade  was  seen  advancing 
from  the  town,  they  were  at  once  recognised  by  their 
green  badge,  that  sent  a  thrill  to  many  a  brave  but  sor¬ 
rowful  heart  behind  that  rampart.  ‘  God !  what  a  pity !  ’ 
said  some.  ‘  We’re  in  for  it,’  said  others.  ‘  By  heavens ! 
here  are  Meagher’s  fellows,’  said  more.  The  voice  of  the 
Colonel  rang  clear  and  shrill — ‘  It’s  Greek  to  Greek  to-day, 
boys — give  them  hell !  ’  And  they  did.  For  that  deadly 
fusilade  was  the  genuine  feu  d’enfer.  Well  might  one  of 
the  most  brilliant  of  the  military  historians  of  the  day  assert 


C80 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


that  ‘never  at  Fontenoy,  at  Albuera,  or  at  Waterloo,  was 
more  undoubted  courage  displayed  by  the  sons  of  Erin,  than 
during  those  six  frantic  dashes  which  they  directed  against 
the  almost  impregnable  position  of  the  foe.’  ‘  It  was  a  sad 
but  glorious  day  for  our  country ;  it  made  us  weep,  but  it 
made  us  proud,’  said  an  Irishman,  who  helped  to  lay  those 
thousand  dead  in  their  bloody  grave. 

A  German  Staff  Officer  of  the  Confederates  says  of  the 
Irish  Brigade,  how  they  fought  in  the  memorable  seven 
days’  fight  in  front  of  Bichmond  : — 

The  attack  was  opened  by  the  columns  of  Hill  (1st),  Anderson,  and 
Pickett.  These  gallant  masses  rushed  forward  with  thundering  hurrahs 
upon  the  musketry  of  the  foe,  as  though  it  were  a  joy  to  them.  Whole 
ranks  went  down  under  that  terrible  hail,  but  nothing  could  restrain 
their  courage.  The  billows  of  battle  raged  fiercely  onward ;  the 
struggle  was  man  to  man,  eye  to  eye,  bayonet  to  bayonet.  The  hostile 
Meagher’s  Brigade,  composed  chiefly  of  Irishmen,  offered  heroic  resis¬ 
tance.  After  a  fierce  struggle  our  people  began  to  give  way,  and  at 
length  all  orders  and  encouragements  were  vain — they  were  falling 
back  in  the  greatest  confusion.  Infuriate,  foaming  at  the  mouth, 
bare-headed,  sabre  in  hand,  at  this  critical  moment  General  Cobb 
appeared  upon  the  field,  at  the  head  of  his  legion,  and  with  the  19th 
North  Carolina  and  14th  Virginia  regiments.  At  once  these  troops 
renewed  the  attack ;  but  all  their  devotion  and  self-sacrifice  were 
in  vain.  The  Irish  held  their  position  with  a  determination  and 
ferocity  that  called  forth  the  admiration  of  our  officers.  Broken  to 
pieces  and  disorganised,  the  fragments  of  that  fine  legion  (Cobb’s) 
came  rolling  back  from  the  charge. 

Almost  while  I  write  these  words,  I  read  of  the  death  of 
one  who  made  his  name  famous  in  the  military  annals  of 
America.  Stricken  by  the  Yellow  Fever, — that  grisly  king 
which  lias  slain  more  victims  by  many  times  than  fell  at 
Fredericksburg, — now  lies  in  his  grave  a  gallant  Irishman, 
Bichard  Dowling,  of  Houston,  Texas,  who  at  Sabine  Pass 
performed  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  feats  of  the  whole 
war.  This  Lieutenant  Bichard  Dowling, — ‘  Major  Dick 
Dowling,’  as  he  has  since  then  been  familiarly  styled, — de¬ 
fending  this  Pass  in  an  earthen  fort,  protected  by  a  couple 


PATRICK  RONAYNE  CLEBURNE. 


581 


serviceable  guns,  and  manned  by  42  Irishmen,  crippled 
an  attacking  fleet,  baffled  an  important  expedition,  and 
actually  captured  of  the  enemy  more  than  ten  times  the 
number  of  his  gallant  band !  From  the  despatches  of  the 
Federal  commanders  the  world  might  have  imagined  that 
a  legion  fought  behind  that  rampart  :  but  the  astounding 
victory  was  entirely  owing  to  the  accurate  aim,  sheer  pluck, 
and  matchless  audacity  of  Dick  Dowling  and  his  forty-two 
Irishmen — to  whom  the  Confederate  Congress,  as  well  they 
might,  passed  a  solemn  vote  of  the  nation’s  thanks. 
Light  rest  the  earth  on  the  breast  of  all  that  remains  of 
gallant  Dick  Dowling ! 

As  I  cannot  attempt  an  enumeration  of  the  various 
Irish  organisations  that  won  distinction  in  the  war,  neither 
can  I  venture  on  a  list  of  the  gallant  Irish  officers,  even 
of  the  highest  rank,  who  signalised  themselves  by  their 
achievements  in  that  memorable  struggle.  I  have  before 
me  a  long  list  of  men  who  commanded  regiments,  brigades, 
divisions,  and  corps ;  but  fearing  that,  from  my  imperfect 
knowledge,  I  should  necessarily  fall  into  error,  and  be 
guilty  perhaps  of  very  serious  injustice  if  I  relied  upon  it, 
I  must  adopt  the  only  course  left  open  to  me,  and  deal  in 
generalities.  Then,  leaving  the  praises  of  men  like  Shiel 
or  Sheridan,  the  Murat  of  the  Union — Irish  by  blood, 
American  through  birth — to  other  pens,  I  shall  simply 
say  that  the  gallantry  and  skill  of  the  Irish  officer,  of 
whatever  rank,  was  quite  as  conspicuous  as  the  dash  and 
endurance  of  the  rank  and  file. 

But  there  is  a  grave  amidst  the  countless  graves  that 
mark  the  scene  of  one  of  the  deadliest  conflicts  of  the  war 
on  -which  I  would  drop  a  kindly  tribute — that  is  the  grave 
of  Patrick  Itonayne  Cleburne,  one  of  the  noblest  of  the 
soldiers  of  the  Confederacy. 

Patrick  Itonayne  Cleburne  wTas  born  within  a  few  miles 
of  the  city  of  Cork.  His  father — the  son  of  a  country 
gentleman  in  Tipperary — was  for  many  years  physician  of 


582 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


the  dispensary  districts  of  Ovens  and  Ballincollig  ;  his 
mother,  Miss  Bonayne,  was  a  lady  from  Queenstown. 
Patrick,  the  youngest  of  three  sons,  was  partly  educated 
for  the  medical  profession ;  but  his  tastes,  from  his  earliest 
youth,  tending  to  a  military  career,  and,  owing  to  his 
father’s  second  marriage,  which  resulted  in  a  second  and 
numerous  family,  not  being  able  to  purchase  a  commission 
as  an  officer  in  the  British  Army,  he  in  his  eighteenth 
year  enlisted  in  the  41st  regiment  as  a  private  soldier. 
He  remained  in  the  service  until  he  was  twenty-one,  when 
he  was  purchased  out  by  his  friends.  But  these  three 
years  of  military  training  in  one  of  the  most  thoroughly 
disciplined  armies  of  Europe  was  of  incalculable  advantage 
to  him  in  after  life.  He  emigrated  to  America  when  the 
war  broke  out ;  and  it  found  the  young  .Cork  man  prac¬ 
tising  with  success  as  a  lawyer  in  Helena,  Arkansas. 

I  have  been  favoured  with  an  admirable  biographical 
sketch  of  General  Cleburne  by  his  attached  friend  and 
distinguished  commander,  General  W.  T.  Hardee,  one  of 
the  most  thoroughly  accomplished  soldiers  of  either  army  ; 
and  referring  the  reader  to  that  sketch,  which  will  be 
found  in  the  Appendix,  I  shall  here  simply  indicate  what 
manner  of  man  was  this  Patrick  Bonayne  Cleburne,  who 
learned  his  knowledge  of  military  drill  and  discipline  in 
the  ranks  of  the  41st  British  regiment  of  infantry.  To 
begin,  then ;  this  heroic  Irishman,  who  was  as  strong  as  a 
wall  of  granite  to  the  foe,  was  as  simple  as  a  child,  and 
as  modest  as  a  girl  ;  and  that  voice  that  rang  like  a 
trumpet  when  cannon  roared,  and  balls  whistled  about  his 
head,  was  low  and  gentle  and  hesitating  when  he  was 
exposed  to  the  most  formidable  of  all  batteries  to  him,  a 
pair  of  eyes  in  the  head  of  any  woman  of  moderate  youth 
or  ordinary  attractions.  His  person nel  is  thus  sketched  by 
a  worthy  countryman  of  his,  whom  he  visited  in  Mobile,  on 
the  occasion  of  the  marriage  of  his  friend  General  Hardee, 
whose  ‘best  man  ’  he  was  on  that  interesting  occasion:  ‘  In 


GENERAL  CLEBURNE  AND  HIS  OPINIONS. 


683 


\ 


person  lie  was  about  five  feet  nine  or  ten  inches  higlis 
slender  in  form,  with  a  wiry  active  look.  His  forehead 
was  high  and  broad,  with  high  cheek  bones,  cheeks  rathe- 
hollow,  and  face  diminishing  in  width  towards  the  chin, 
the  upper  features  being  more  massive  than  the  lower. 
The  general  expression  of  his  countenance  in  repose  was 
serious  and  thoughtful ;  but  in  conversation  he  was  ani¬ 
mated  and  impressive,  while  his  whole  air  and  manner 
were  remarkably  unpretending.’ 

General  Cleburne  dining  one  day  with  the  good  Irish¬ 
man  whose  words  I  have  quoted,  informed  him  that  he 
had  made  up  his  mind  during  the  war  to  be  a  total 
abstainer,  because  he  found  that  in  his  pistol  practice  and 
in  playing  chess,  of  which  game  he  was  remarkably  fond, 
even  one  glass  of  wine  affected  his  aim,  or  interfered  with 
his  calculation.  He  determined,  therefore,  while  the  war 
lasted,  and  he  was  responsible  for  the  lives  of  others,  and 
the  results  consequent  on  the  manner  in  which  he  should 
discharge  his  duties,  that  he  would  abstain  altogether  from 
the  use  of  all  kinds  of  liquor. 

Cleburne  was  in  favour  of  arming  the  negroes  as  sol¬ 
diers,  conferring  upon  them  and  their  families  freedom  as 
a  bounty.  He,  with  several  distinguished  generals,  signed 
a  petition  to  President  Davis  to  that  effect,  and  he  per¬ 
sonally  offered  to  take  command  of  a  division  of  such 
troops,  when  raised.  But  the  movement  failed  on  account 
of  the  opposition  which  it  met  with.  In  private  conversa¬ 
tion  he  said  that  the  general  sentiment  of  the  world  was 
against  the  Confederacy  on  the  question  of  slavery,  and 
that  Southerners  could  look  nowhere  for  active  sympathy 
unless  they  made  some  such  arrangement  as  he  mentioned  : 
and  he  unhesitatingly  expressed  his  belief,  that  the  success 
of  the  cause  depended  upon  its  adoption.  He  did  not 
pronounce  a  decided  opinion  against  slavery  in  the  abstract, 
but  he  regarded  the  system  in  the  South  as  having 
glaring  defects  and  evils,  especially  the  utter  disregard 


584 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


of  the  married  rights  of  the  slaves,  which,  he  said,  was 
enough  to  deprive  the  States  in  which  this  evil  existed 
of  the  aid  of  Providence  in  the  war.  The  opinions  held 
by  General  Cleburne  were  those  emphatically  expressed 
in  writing  and  from  the  pulpit  by  the  Catholic  Bishops 
of  Richmond  and  Savannah.* 

The  opinions  of  a  man  of  Cleburne’s  stamp,  as  to  the 
character  of  the  Irish  as  soldiers  I  give  in  the  words  of 
the  friend  who  heard  them  expressed  by  that  great  General  : 
‘In  reference  to  the  relative  merits,  as  soldiers,  of  the 
‘  different  kind  of  men  in  the  service,  he  said  he  preferred 
‘  the  Irish,  not  on  the  ground  of  their  courage,  for  of  that 
‘there  was  no  lack  in  the  Confederate  service,  but  for 
‘  other  qualities,  highly  useful  in  war.  After  a  long  day’s 
‘  march  they  generally  had  their  tents  up  first ;  they  were 
‘  more  cleanly  in  their  persons ;  under  the  fatigue  of  hard 
‘  work,  or  a  heavy  march,  they  showed  more  endurance, 
‘  and  recovered  sooner  ;  they  were  more  cheerful  under 
‘  privation ;  and  above  all,  they  were  more  amenable  to 
‘discipline.  These,  he  said,  wTere  highly  useful  qualities 
‘  in  war ;  and  from  actual  observation  he  was  persuaded 
‘  the  Irish  soldiers  possessed  them  in  a  higher  degree  than 
‘any  other  people  that  came  under  his  eye.’ 

Cleburne  was  one  of  those  Irishmen  who  never  could 
understand  how  it  was  that  his  countrymen  of  the  North 
could  join  with  the  ‘Yankee’  to  oppress  and  crush  the 
South ;  but  had  he  been  a  lawyer  in  a  Northern  or  North¬ 
western  State,  he  might  have  been  equally  surprised  if 
any  one  had  accused  him  of  turning  his  military  knowledge 
to  the  same  purpose.  His  countrymen  throughout  the 
Northern  States  were  proud  of  his  splendid  reputation ; 
while  in  the  South  it  was  not  considered  second  to  that  of 
the  very  greatest  of  its  commanders.  And  when  he  died 
— struck  by  a  storm  of  bullets,  as  the  fore  feet  of  his  horse 
were  planted  on  the  Federal  ramparts — a  wrail  of  sorrow 


*  See  Appendix. 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


585 


and  a  shudder  of  despair  passed  through  the  land.  A 
tower  of  strength  had  fallen.  The  dauntless  soldier  sleeps 
in  peace  in  the  cemetery  whose  solemn  beauty  elicited 
the  strange  remark,  as  he  gazed  on  it  a  few  days  before  ho 
gloriously  fell,  ‘  It  is  almost  w^orth  dying  to  rest  in  so  sweet 
a  spot.’ 

I  heard  the  heroic  Irishman  thus  spoken  of  by  two  brave 
men — General  Buckner  and  General  Hood — who  had  been 
with  him  in  many  a  memorable  tight,  and  many  a  bril¬ 
liant  victory.  Referring  to  his  name,  the  first-named 
general  said  : — 

And  particularly  did  I  recall  the  virtues  of  the  Irish  character,  when 
a  few  short  months  ago,  I  stood,  in  the  twilight  hour,  over  the  grave  of 
one  of  the  noblest  sons  of  Ireland.  As  I  looked  upon  the  plain  board 
inscribed  with  his  name  in  pencil  lines,  and  upon  the  withered  flowers 
which  the  fair  hands  of  some  of  our  countrywomen  had  strewn  upon 
his  grave,  I  wept  silent  tears  to  the  glorious  memory  of  General  Patrick 
Cleburne.  He  commanded  a  brigade  in  my  division,  and  afterwards 
succeeded  me  in  the  command  of  troops  whom  I  cannot  more  highly 
praise  than  to  say  he  was  one  of  the  few  who  was  worthy  to  command 
such  men.  And  conspicuous  amongst  such  gallant  men,  and  worthy 
soldiers  of  such  a  glorious  leader,  were  Irishmen,  who  illustrated  their 
high  military  virtues  on  so  many  fields,  and  displayed  on  so  many 
occasions  their  fidelity  to  the  cause  they  had  espoused. 

And  thus  spoke  General  Hood,  who  bears  in  many  a 
scar  and  wound  eloquent  testimonies  to  liis  desperate  but 
unavailing  gallantry : — 

During  the  late  war  it  was  my  fortune  to  have  in  my  command 
organisations  composed  of  your  countrymen,  and  it  gives  me  pleasure 
to  assert  that  they  were  always  at  their  post.  And  among  these  brave 
men  was  to  be  found  the  gallant  Cleburne.  His  name  carries  me  to 
the  heights  near  Franklin.  And  his  last  remarks,  just  before  moving 
forward,  I  shall  ever  remember.  He  said :  ‘  General,  I  have  my  division 
in  two  lines,  and  am  ready.  General,  I  am  more  hopeful  of  the  success 
of  our  cause  than  I  have  ever  been  since  the  war  commenced/  Within 
twenty-five  minutes  this  brave  soldier  was  no  more.  Within  an  hour 
an  army  was  in  mourning  over  the  great  loss.  Thus  ended  the  career 
of  this  distinguished  man — hopeful  even  at  the  last  hour,  but  doomed 
to  disappointment  as  all  other  men. 


586 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


America  is  a  country  of  wonders,  where  things  are  to  be 
seen  of  wliicli  the  old  world  mind  can  have  no  concep¬ 
tion.  But  nothing  that  I  beheld  impressed  me  with  the 
same  admiration,  and  indeed  with  the  same  astonishment, 
as  the  manner  in  which  a  people,  whose  tremendous 
struggle  of  four  long  years’  duration  enchained  the  atten¬ 
tion  of  every  civilised  nation,  returned  to  the  peaceful 
pursuits  of  civil  life.  To  my  mind,  there  was  something, 
great  beyond  description  in  this  unrivalled  spectacle.  A 
few  months  before,  and  the  earth  resounded  with  the 
clash  of  armed  legions,  mightier  and  more  numerous  than 
any  which  Europe  had  assembled  for  centuries  ;  and  'where 
is  the  trace  of  this  colossal  conflict  in  the  bearing  and  de¬ 
portment  of  the  people  ?  You  may  behold  its  marks  and 
traces  in  the  desolated  track  of  the  conqueror  ;  in  the 
sedge-broom  now  usurping  the  once  fruitful  soil ;  in  rifled 
and  ruined  dwellings  abandoned  to  decay  ;  in  burned  cities 
rising  anew  from  their  ashes  :  in  crumbling  embankments 
and  road-side  ramparts,  which  cost  so  much  blood  and  so 
many  gallant  lives  to  take  or  to  defend, — but  in  the  calm 
dignified  attitude  of  the  great  American  people,  who  have 
sheathed  the  sword  and  laid  aside  the  rifle,  you  cannot 
perceive  them. 

Where,  you  unconsciously  ask,  are  the  soldiers,  the 
fighting  men,  the  heroes,  who  bore  a  distinguished  part  in 
that  protracted  contest  ?  Have  the  brigades,  the  divisions, 
the  corps,  the  armies,  of  which  we  read  in  bulletin  and 
report — have  they  sunk  into  the  earth,  or  have  they 
vanished  in  the  air  ?  If  not,  how  are  these  men  of  war 
employed  ? — can  they  settle  down  to  the  ordinary  pursuits 
of  life  ;  or  have  they  been  fatally  intoxicated  by  the  smoke 
and  excitement  of  battle,  and  utterly  demoralised  by  the 
licence  of  the  camp  ?  You  shall  see. 

Who  is  that  remarkable-looking  man,  with  something 
of  the  clanking  sabre  in  his  carriage,  yet  with  nothing 


AFTER  THE  WAR. 


58  i 

more  warlike  in  liis  hand  than  a  memorandum  book,  with 
a  bundle  of  harmless  papers  protruding  from  the  breast¬ 
pocket  of  a  coat  that  seems  to  cling  to  his  broad  chest  as 
if  it  were  a  uniform?  A  commercial  agent.  Yes,  now; 
but  what  was  he  a  few  months  since?  One  at  whose  mere 
mention  wives  and  mothers  paled,  and  with  the  incantation 
of  whose  name  nurses  hushed  their  fractious  charge — a 
daring  leader  of  cavalry,  whose  swoop  was  as  fierce  and 
sudden  as  the  eagle’s. 

Here,  down  in  this  new  city,  in  the  midst  of  the  tall 
pines,  you  see  that  coach  factory,  full  of  waggons,  and 
buggies  of  all  kinds ;  and  what  is  that  bearded  man  em¬ 
ployed  at  ?  A  sewing-machine  ?  Impossible  ;  it  can’t  be 
— and  yet  it  is.  Yes,  it  is.  That  tall  bearded  man  held 
high  rank  in  his  corps ;  but,  the  war  over,  and  hating 
idleness,  he  established  this  thriving  factory;  and  with  his 
own  hands  he  is  now  sewing  and  embroidering  the  curtains 
of  that  carriage  which  is  to  be  sent  for  in  a  day  or  two  by 
its  purchaser. 

At  yon  lawyer’s  desk,  covered  with  open  or  tape-bound 
documents,  an  anxious  client  awaiting  his  opinion  of  that 
knotty  case,  sits  one,  now  immersed  in  the  intricacy  of  a 
legal  problem,  whose  natural  element  seemed  to  be  amid 
the  thickest  press  of  battle,  where  squadrons  rushed  on 
serried  bayonets,  or  dashed  at  belching  batteries. 

Calmly  giving  some  minute  instruction  to  a  deferential 
clerk,  respecting  a  delayed  train,  or  dictating  an  answer 
to  some  impatient  enquiry  concerning  a  missing  parcel  or 
a  bale  of  dry-goods  left  behind,  is  a  man  whose  wisdom 
and  whose  courage  wyere  the  hope  of  a  cause ;  prudent 
in  council,  skilful  in  strategy,  calm  and  cool  in  conflict. 

Behind  that  counter,  in  that  store,  or  perched  on  that 
office  desk,  is  he  who  has  done  so  many  brilliant  feats,  to 
the  wonder  of  the  foe,  and  the  rapture  of  his  friends. 

Bushing  headlong  through  the  street,  in  his  eagerness 


5S8 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


to  keep  some  appointment,  in  which  there  is  to  be  much 
talk  of  bales  of  cotton,  cargoes  of  corn,  or  hogsheads  oi 
strong  wine,  is  the  soldier  whose  movements  were  of 
lightning  celerity,  who,  by  right  of  his  lavished  blood,  had 
established  a  kind  of  vested  interest  in  every  desperate 
undertaking. 

And  here,  at  this  editor’s  table,  with  ink,  and  paste,  and 
scissors  at  his  elbow,  up  to  his  eyes  in  ‘  proofs,’  and  young 
‘  devils  ’  clamorous  for  c  copy,’  you  have  a  dashing  colonel, 
a  fortunate  general,  a  famous  artillery  officer — now  as 
tranquilly  engaged  in  the  drudgery  of  his  £  daily’  as  if  he 
had  never  led  his  regiment  at  the  charge,  never  handled 
a  division  or  a  corps,  or  never  decided  a  victory  with  his 
guns;  as  if,  in  fact,  he  had  only  learned  of  war  in  the  pages 
of  Grecian  or  Roman  history,  or  read  of  it  in  one  of  his 
European  ‘exchanges.’ 

Hush!  you  are  in  a  seat  of  learning,  in  which  the  hope¬ 
ful  youth  of  a  great  country  is  being  trained  for  its  future 
citizenship.  You  perceive  that  quiet-looking  elderly  gen¬ 
tleman  smiling  kindly  on  that  bright  eager  lad,  as  he 
speaks  to  him  with  gentle  voice.  That  quiet-looking  gen¬ 
tleman  is  the  man  of  men,  whose  very  name  was  worth  an 
army  to  the  side  he  espoused.  Every  home  in  America, 
every  village  in  Europe,  has  heard  of  that  quiet-looking 
gentleman. 

And  look  again:  here  is  a  learned  professor  instructing 
his  class — not  at  all  a  wonderful  sight,  you  may  say;  but  on 
the  wide  ocean,  in  every  mart  of  commerce,  on  every  ex¬ 
change,  in  every  nook  and  corner  in  which  the  risks  of  sea, 
enhanced  by  the  casualties  of  war,  are  keenly  calculated, 
there  were  those  who  thought  by  day  and  dreamed  by 
night  of  that  learned  professor. 

Go  where  you  will,  in  field  or  mine,  in  workshop,  in 
factory,  in  store,  in  counting  house,  in  hotel — at  either 
side  of  the  line — whether  on  land  or  water — everywhere— 


THE  GRANDEST  OF  ALL  SPECTACLES. 


580 


you  behold,  now  absorbed  in  honest  toil  and  patient  in¬ 
dustry,  the  men,  high  and  low,  of  every  rank  and  grade, 
and  of  every  nationality  too,  who,  a  few  months  since,  were 
engaged  in  desperate  strife !  This  spectacle,  which  the 
Old  World  has  never  seen  surpassed,  is  more  wonderful 
than  Niagara,  more  majestic  than  the  Mississippi,  more 
sublime  than  the  snow-clad  pinnacles  of  the  loftiest  of  the 
Sierras. 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


M  0 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

Feeling  of  the  Irish  in  America  towards  England — A  Fatal 
Mistake— Not  Scamps  and  Rowdies — Who  they  really  are — 
Sympathy  conquering  Irritation — Indifference  to  Danger — Down 
in  the  Mine — One  of  the  Causes  of  Anti-English  Feeling — 
More  of  the  Cause  of  Bad  Feeling — What  Grave  and  Quiet 
Men  think*— If  they  only  could  ‘  see  their  way7 — A  Grievance  re¬ 
dressed  is  a  Weapon  broken — The  Irish  Element — Belief  in  Eng¬ 
land’s  Decay — War  with  England — Why  most  Injurious  to  Eng¬ 
land — Why  less  Injurious  to  America — The  only  Possible  Remedy. 

IT  is  a  matter  of  more  importance  to  understand  what  is 
the  real  feeling  entertained  by  the  Irish  in  America 
towards  England,  or  the  British  Government,  than  to 
ascertain  the  nature  or  the  details  of  any  organisation  to 
which  that  feeling  may  give  rise.  If  the  feeling  be  ephe¬ 
meral  or  factitious,  the  organisation,  however  formidable 
its  aspect,  resembles  a  torrent  caused  by  a  summer  storm, 
or  a  tree  with  wide  branches  yet  having  no  hold  in  the  soil. 
And,  on  the  other  hand,  though  an  organisation  may  bo 
ill-designed  or  even  ridiculous,  or,  on  account  of  the  folly, 
or  violence,  or  treachery,  of  those  who  are  responsible  for 
its  management,  may  come  to  a  speedy  dissolution,  if  it 
have  its  origin  in  an  earnest  and  enduring  feeling,  it  is 
significant  of  danger — it  represents  more  than  is  seen ; 
and  die  down  as  it  may,  it  is  sure  to  spring  up  again  in 
some  new  form.  Here  the  abiding  life  is,  as  it  were,  in 
the  soil,  whose  vital  energy  throws  these  its  creations  to 
the  surface.  The  question,  then,  should  rather  be,  what  is 
the  feeling  in  which  an  organisation — Fenianism,  or  any 
other  ‘ism’ — has  its  origin ,  than  what  is  the  organisation 
which  springs  from  the  feeling?  With  the  special  organi¬ 
sation,  much  less  with  its  details,  I  have  no  concern  what¬ 
ever;  while  with  the  feeling  I  cannot,  in  duty  or  in  honesty, 
refuse  to  deal. 


A  FATAL  MISTAKE. 


591 


Of  the  leaders,  the  real  or  ostensible  leaders  of  the 
existing  organisation  various  opinions  are  entertained  and 
freely  expressed ;  and  far  stronger  language  has  been  used 
by  different  sections  of  the  same  nominal  body  with  respect 
to  the  merits  or  demerits  of  rival  chiefs  than  has  been 
employed  by  the  most  indignant  and  out-spoken  Crown 
Prosecutor,  or  the  most  enthusiastic  advocate  of  British 
connection.  It  is  only  just,  however,  to  state,  that  against 
the  personal  character,  the  honour  and  integrity,  of  the 
present  most  prominent  member*  of  the  Fenian  organisa¬ 
tion  I  have  never  heard  a  word.  Personal  ambition,  or 
a  desire  for  display,  may  have  been  urged  against  him  by 
those  who  did  not  agree  with  his  policy,  or  were  opposed 
to  the  movement  ;  but  no  one,  not  even  a  partisan  of  a 
rival  leader,  accuses  him  of  dishonesty  or  of  treachery. 

There  cannot  be  a  more  fatal  mistake,  whether  fallen 
into  in  England  or  in  Ireland,  than  that  which  has  its 
origin  in  the  desire  to  make  light  of  the  feeling  existing 
among  the  Irish  in  America — namely,  of  depreciating  the 
position,  character,  and  motives  of  those  who  have  either 
joined  or  aided  the  present  movement,  or  who  sympathise 
with  its  objects,  whether  special  or  general.  It  has  been 
frequently  asserted  that  the  Fenian  organisation  embraces 
within  its  ranks  none  but  the  looser  portion  of  the  popu¬ 
lation — in  fact,  £  the  scum  of  the  great  cities,’  and  that  it 
depends  altogether  for  its  support  on  the  contributions 
extorted  from  day  labourers  and  servant-girls.  That  the 
organisation  embraces  many  young  men  of  loose  habits  or 
irregular  lives  must  of  necessity  be  the  case — it  must  be 
so  with  every  movement  or  organisation  of  a  similar  nature  ; 
yet,  though  such  supporters  of  an  organisation  may  not  be 
the  steadiest  supporters  of  the  community,  or  the  most 
remarkable  for  self-restraint,  they  bring  to  it  physical 
force,  courage,  and  a  reckless  desperation  which  no  obstacle 
can  daunt  or  deter.  Men  of  this  class,  however,  do  not 


*  Sir.  Roberta. 


TIIE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


f>92 

constitute  its  strength  ;  they  certainly  are  not  its  guiding 
spirits,  nor  do  they  form  more  than  a  section  or  per¬ 
centage  of  the  whole  bod}r — they  are,  in  fact,  but  a  mere 
minority  of  the  rank  and  file  of  American  Fenianism. 
That  an  individual  who  takes  the  lead  in  a  certain  locality 
may  be  actuated  by  the  lowest  motives — vanity,  self- 
interest,  or  the  desire  of  obtaining  influence  to  be  employed 
for  the  furtherance  of  personal  objects — is  probably  true, 
and  it  would  be  strange  if  such  were  not  the  case  ;  but 
the  body,  meaning  thereby  the  thousands  or  the  tens  of 
thousands  who  constitute  the  strength  of  the  organisation, 
even  in  the  locality  in  which  there  may  happen  to  be  a 
worthless  leader,  are  neither  ‘ roughs ’  nor  ‘rowdies/  nor 
men  of  irregular  or  dissipated  habits  ;  and  the  feeling  by 
which  these  men  are  animated  is  as  pure  as  it  is  unselfish. 
That  what  they  propose  to  themselves  as  their  immediate 
or  ultimate  object  may  be  as  impracticable  as  mischievous 
— that  it  would  rather  aggravate  and  intensify  the  evils 
which  they  desire  to  remedy  by  sweeping  revolution, — this 
is  not  properly  the  question ;  it  is  rather,  what  is  their  true 
character  ? — what  is  their  real  feeling  ?  Then,  so  far  as  I 
have  been  able  to  learn,  my  belief  is,  that  among  the 
Fenians  in  almost  every  State  of  the  Union  there  are 
many  thousands  of  the  very  cream  of  the  Irish  population. 
Indeed,  in  several  places  in  which  I  have  been  I  have 
learned,  on  unquestionable  authority — very  frequently  of 
those  who  regarded  Fenianism  with  positive  dislike,  and 
its  leaders  with  marked  mistrust — that  the  most  regular, 
steady,  and  self-respecting  of  the  Irish  youth,  or  the 
immediate  descendants  of  Irish  parents,  constituted  its 
chief  strength. 

A  few  facts,  given  without  method,  wfill  best  illustrate 
the  real  character  of  those  who  take  part  in  this  organi¬ 
sation,  and  the  feelings  by  which  they  are  animated. 

I  happened  to  be  in  Buffalo  in  a  few  months  after  the 
famous  raid  into  Canada ;  and  the  impression  produced  by 


NOT  SCAMPS  AND  ROWDIES. 


598 


tvhal  I  then  learned  was  not  weakened,  but  rather  con¬ 
firmed,  by  every  day’s  additional  experience  in  the  United 
States.  I  was  then  brought  into  contact  with  persons 
holding  the  most  opposite  opinions  as  to  the  character  of 
this  raid— those  who  condemned  or  those  who  applauded 
it ;  but  from  the  very  persons  who  denounced  it,  as  wanton 
and  wicked,  I  received  as  strong  testimony  in  favour  of 
the  conduct  of  the  Fenians  who  took  part  in  it,  or  who  had 
come  to  take  part  in  it,  as  from  those  who  gloried  in  the 
attempt,  and  deplored  its  failure.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
repeat  the  oft-told  story  of  the  Canadian  raid,  or  the  part 
taken  by  the  American  Government,  under  the  solemn 
obligations  of  international  law,  to  ensure  its  defeat.  Not 
calculating  on  the  active  interference  of  the  authorities, 
an  immense  body  of  Fenians,  several  thousands  in  number, 
concentrated  in  Buffalo,  with  the  intention  of  crossing 
the  .frontier ;  and  though  they  were  badly  provided,  if  not 
utterly  unprovided,  with  commissariat,  and  though,  not¬ 
withstanding  the  generosity  or  the  efforts  of  their  friends, 
they  had  to  subsist  on  the  simplest  and  even  scantiest 
fare ;  and  though  hundreds  of  these  young  men  were  to  be 
seen  lying  on  the  side-walks,  their  only  sleeping-places  at 
night  (it  was  in  the  midst  of  the  summer) — there  was  not 
committed  by  any  one  of  that  vast  body  during  the  time, 
fully  a  fortnight,  that  they  remained  in  that  large  and  popu¬ 
lous  city,  a  single  offence  against  person,  or  property,  or 
decency,  or  public  order !  This  fact,  so  creditable  to  the 
Irish  character,  was  admitted,  however  reluctantly,  by  the 
opponents  of  the  Fenians,  and  was  proudly  proclaimed  by 
their  sympathisers. 

In  this  raid,  or  ready  to  take  part  in  it,  were  men  of 
the  best  character  and  the  steadiest  conduct.  Instances 
were  numerous  of  those  who  had  abandoned  well-paid 
offices,  lucrative  situations,  and  valuable  appointments — 
who  had  given  up  happy  homes  and  quiet  enjoyments,  to 
risk  liberty  and  life  in  this  expedition.  Fathers  were  not 


69  i 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


restrained  from  joining  in  it  by  family  obligations ;  and 
those  who  were  beyond  the  period  of  active  service  rather 
encouraged  than  checked  the  ardour  of  their  sons.  A 
striking  case  in  point  came  under  my  immediate  observa¬ 
tion.  I  visited,  on  invitation,  the  store  of  a  respectable 
man,  whom  I  had  known  many  years  before  in  Ireland, 
and  whose  feeling  I  knew  had  always  been  strongly 
‘national.’  Speaking  of  the  Canadian  raid,  in  the  pres¬ 
ence  of  his  wife  and  children  and  one  or  two  friends,  ail 
grouped  round  the  stove  at  the  far  end  of  his  place  of 
business,  he  pointed  to  a  handsome  fresh-coloured  young 
fellow  of  twenty,  and  said — ‘That  boy  joined  them  over 
the  way,  and  with  my  full  consent.  His  mother  there  was 
in  a  terrible  state  about  him,  like  all  women,  I  suppose, 
and  wanted  not  to  let  him  go  on  any  account ;  but  I  said  to 
her,  “  if  you  do  not  let  him  go,  I  will  take  his  place  ;  and  if 
I  say  I  will  go,  no  power  on  earth  will  stop  me”  It  was 
only  then  she  consented — she  will  tell  you  so  herself.  He 
did  go,  and  he  came  back,  safe  too,  to  his  mother  and  me, 
thank  God !  ’  A  deep,  lieart-felt  ‘  Amen  !  ’  was  the  mother  s 
only  response,  as  she  caressed  the  soft  cheek  of  her 
youngest  child,  that,  sitting  at  her  feet,  rested  its  head 
against  her  knee. 

I  was  passing  through  an  hospital  in  Buffalo,  which  was 
in  the  charge  of  a  community  of  Irish  Sisters,  when  the 
gentleman  by  whom  I  was  accompanied  asked  me  if  I 
should  like  to  see  ‘a  live  Fenian?’  I  replied  that  I  had 
seen  more  than  one  specimen  of  the  genus  Fenian  before, 
and  that  I  had  no  special  curiosity  to  see  one  on  that  occa¬ 
sion.  ‘  Ah,’  said  he,  ‘  but  he  was  one  of  the  raiders  into 
Canada,  and  was  severely  wounded.  This  case  may  be  in¬ 
teresting  to  you  for  this  reason — that  it  affords  the  best 
reply  to  those  who,  in  their  eagerness  to  put  down  a  so- 
called  secret  organisation  (and,  God  knows,  it  puzzles  me 
to  discern  where  the  secresy  is),  represent  all  who  belong 
to  it  as  infidels  and  everything  bad.  This  young  man,  who 


WHO  THEY  REALLY  ARE. 


r>9fl 

was  wounded  at  Limestone  Bidge,  is,  to  my  personal 
knowledge,  one  of  the  best-conducted  men  in  this  city. 
He  was  and  is  a  monthly  communicant,  and,  I  can  answer 
for  it,  he  is  exemplary  in  every  relation  of  life.  He  is, 
besides,  a  man  of  superior  intelligence.  Now  I  am,  if 
anything,  an  anti-Fenian  ;  yet  I  tell  you  it  is  absurd  to 
suppose  that  the  organisation  is  what  it  has  been  described 
by  your  English  newspaper  correspondents.’  The  appear¬ 
ance,  manner,  and  bearing  of  the  wounded  man,  who  was 
sitting  on  the  side  of  his  bed,  and  who  laid  dowm  a  prayer- 
book  as  soon  as  he  saw’  the  visitor  approaching,  evidently 
justified  the  description  given  of  him  by  my  companion. 

A  distinguished  Irish  clergyman  of  the  Catholic  diocese 
of  Cincinnati,  w7lio  publicly  and  privately  discouraged  the 
movement,  remarked  to  me  : — ‘  It  is  idle  to  say  that  this 
feeling — call  it  infatuation  if  you  like — has  not  a  strong 
„  hold  on  our  Irish  population,  or  that  the  organisation  does 
not  embrace  within  it  many  men  of  the  best  character  and 
the  purest  motives.  I  have  every  day  ample  experience 
of  the  fact  that  this  is  so.  I  will  give  you  a  case  in  point. 
I  w7as  sitting  at  this  desk  one  evening,  busily  writing,  when 
a  visitor  w’as  announced.  He  was  a  penitent  of  my  own, 
and  I  assure  you  I  was  very  proud  of  him,  for  there  could 
not  be  a  more  respectable  young  man,  or  one  wdio  was  in 
every  wray  better  conducted.  He  was  likewise  singularly 
thoughtful  and  intelligent,  and  held  an  excellent  position. 
“  Father,”  he  said,  “  I  want  you  to  do  me  a  great  favour.” 
I  told  him,  what  was  quite  true,  that  I  should  be  happy  to 
do  anything  in  my  power  to  oblige  or  serve  him.  “Well, 
Father,”  said  he,  “  I  want  you  to  take  charge  of  this  little 
parcel  for  me — it  contains  $G00.  I  am  going  at  once  on  a 
very  important  journey,  on  which  much  depends.  I  am 
not  at  present  at  liberty  to  say  anything  more,  but  you 
shall  soon  know  all  about  it ;  but  if  you  don’t  hear  of  me 
in  six  months,  send  this  money  to  my  parents  in  Ireland, 
with  this  letter.”  I  received  the  money  and  the  letter  from 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


m 

him,  and  promised  strict  compliance  with  his  request.  1 
did  not  press  him  as  to  the  nature  of  his  journey,  for  he 
was  studiously  reserved  on  that  point ;  and  when  he  took 
leave,  it  was  with  a  display  of  emotion  not  very  common 
with  him,  for  he  was  almost  invariably  cool  and  collected 
in  manner.  In  less  than  ten  days  after  we  parted  at  that 
door,  I  was  shocked  to  read  in  the  morning  paper  the 
account  of  his  death,— he  was  one  of  the  raiders,  and  he 
was  killed  in  the  fight  at  Fort  Erie.’ 

From  the  Southern  States — Alabama,  Louisiana,  the 
Carolinas,  Florida,  Texas — young  men  had  come  up  to  the 
extreme  North  on  this  expedition  ;  and  had  it  been  even 
momentarily  successful,  or  had  there  been  the  least  con¬ 
nivance  with  the  movement  on  the  part  of  the  Government 
of  the  United  States, — had,  in  fact,  those  who  first  crossed 
the  frontier  but  the  opportunity  of  making  a  stand,  and 
holding  their  own  even  for  a  few  days,  vast  numbers 
would  have  flocked  to  the  green  standard  from  every 
State  in  the  Union.  That  Southern  men,  or  Confederates, 
should  take  any  active  part  in  the  movement  wTas  extra¬ 
ordinary,  considering  the  feeling  of  exasperation  that  still 
lingered  in  the  Southern  mind,  the  result  of  the  late  war. 
This  feeling  was  quite  as  strongly  felt  by  Irishmen  in  the 
Confederacy  as  by  Americans  ;  and  though  there  was,  of 
necessity,  a  sympathy  between  Irishmen  at  both  sides  of 
the  line,  still  there  was  a  lurking  sentiment  of  irritation 
not  a  little  aggravated  by  the  policy  of  the  extreme  Radical 
party,  as  proclaimed  through  their  press,  and  sought  to  be 
enforced  by  legislation.  An  incident,  which  reached  me 
through  more  than  one  source,  will  indicate,  better  than  any 
description,  the  feeling  of  the  Irish  in  the  South  as  to  the 
part  taken  by  their  compatriots  of  the  North  in  the  war. 

While  the  contending  armies  lay  in  front  of  each  other 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Chattanooga,  a  flag  of  truce 
brought  together  several  distinguished  officers  on  both 
sides ;  amongst  them,  General  Cleburne  and  General 


,  SYMPATHY  CONQUERING  IRRITATION. 


597 


Sweeney — the  former  fittingly  representing  the  gallantry  of 
the  Southern  Irish,  the  latter  as  fittingly  representing  the 
gallantry  of  the  Northern  Irish.  Friendly  greetings  and 
compliments  were  interchanged,  flasks  were  emptied,  and 

healths  were  drunk  with  great  cordiality  by  those  who  in 

. 

a  few  hour^  after  were  to  meet  in  deadly  strife.  On  that 
occasion  General  Sweeney,  addressing  himself  to  General 
Cleburne,  expressed  his  regret  that  his  countrymen  should 
be  found  opposed  to  each  other,  and  fighting  on  both  sides 
during  the  war ;  but  he  hoped  the  time  would  come  when 
they  would  all  be  found  united,  and  standing  side  by  side 
in  the  effort  to  recover  the  independence  of  their  native 
land.  To  this  Cleburne  replied,  that  to  assist  in  destroying 
the  independence  of  one  people  was  rather  a  poor  prepa¬ 
ration  for  the  work  of  restoring  the  independence  of 
another. 

This  lingering  feeling  of  irritation  is,  however,  rapidly 
passing  away,  owing  in  a  great  measure  not  only  to  the 
generous  bearing  of  the  Federal  Irish  while  as  combatants 
or  conquerors  in  the  South,  but  to  the  policy  generally 
held  by  the  Irish  in  the  Northern  States  as  to  the  re-ad¬ 
mission  of  the  seceding  States  into  the  Union.  But,  were 
that  sentiment  of  irritation  stronger  than  it  is,  it  would 
be  absorbed  by  one  far  stronger  and  more  intense — ‘  hatred 
of  the  common  enemy,  love  of  the  common  country.’  I 
had  rather  a  strange  exhibition  of  the  intensity  of  this  feel¬ 
ing  in  a  city  in  Alabama. 

From  this  city,  in  which  there  is  a  considerable  Irish 
population,  there  had  gone  forth,  besides  other  Irish  organ¬ 
isations,  several  companies,  all  of  which  distinguished  them¬ 
selves  by  the  most  extraordinary  daring  and  intrepidity. 
In  the  very  thickest  of  the  deadliest  struggle  these  men 
fought  with  a  desperation  that  elicited  universal  admi¬ 
ration.  One  of  these  companies  lost  four  out  of  every 
five ;  either  they  were  killed  on  the  field  of  battle,  or  they 
died  in  the  hospital  of  their  wounds.  Of  130  men  who 


598 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


from  time  to  time  joined  that  company,  but  2G  survived ; 
and  that  gallant  remnant  of  that  heroic  band  limped  back 
to  their  homes,  middled  with  shot  and  shell,  and  hacked 
by  steel— cripples  for  life.  Those  who  commanded  these 
heroic  men  were  in  every  way  worthy  of  those  they  com¬ 
manded.  Three  times  this  company  lost  its  captain  in 
front  of  the  enemy ;  and  the  successor  to  their  honours 
and  responsibilities — an  Irishman  from  "Waterford — the 
fourth  who  led  it  into  battle — bears  on  his  person  terrible 
evidences  of  the  work  in  which  he  had  been  engaged. 
He  called  on  me  at  my  hotel ;  and  the  conversation 
turning  on  the  late  civil  war,  he  informed  me  of  many 
interesting  particulars  with  respect  to  the  part  taken  in  it 
by  Irishmen  at  both  sides.  I  happened  to  express  a  hope 
that  his  many  wounds,  of  which  I  had  heard  so  much  from 
others,  did  not  cause  him  pain  or  inconvenience,  and  my 
surprise  that  he  survived  such  grievous  injuries  in  vital 
parts ;  when,  rather  unexpectedly,  he  said,  ‘  I  would  like 
to  show  you  my  wounds,  if  you  have  no  objection  ;  you  can 
then  see  what  narrow  escapes  I  had.’  I  replied  that  I 
could  have  no  objection  whatever  to  behold  the  marks  of 
a  brave  man’s  valour ;  on  which,  though  not  without  some 
difficulty,  owing  to  the  helpless  condition  of  one  arm,  he 
stripped  to  the  waist.  And,  poor  fellow,  he  had  been 
riddled  and  torn  indeed.  He  had  been  shot  through  the 
neck,  the  ball  entering  at  one  side,  and  going  out  at  the 
other.  Within  an  inch  or  two  of  his  spine  was  a  great 
mark  where  a  rifle  bullet  had  torn  through  ;  that  bullet, 
turned  by  one  of  those  strange  eccentric  motions  which 
bullets  occasionally  take,  passed  out  through  his  side,  and 
shattered  his  arm.  A  third  had  more  than  grazed  the 
lower  stomach — it  had  literally  passed  through,  leaving  its 
mark  of  entrance  and  departure.  Then  there  wTere  scars 
of  minor  importance,  still  eloquent  mementos  of  fierce 
fights  in  which  he  and  his  noble  Irish  ‘  Guard  ’  had  taken 
so  conspicuous  a  part.  One  arm,  as  I  have  mentioned,  hung 


INDIFFERENCE  TO  DANGER. 


59!) 


helpless  by  liis  side  ;  but  I  well  remember  how  his  eyes 
sparkled,  and  his  face  became  suffused  with  enthusiasm, 
as,  suddenly  flinging  aloft  his  other  arm,  lean  and  sinewy, 
he  exclaimed  in  a  voice  of  concentrated  passion — ‘  This  is 
the  only  arm  I  have  left,  and,  so  help  me  God !  I’d  give  it 
and  every  drop  of  my  heart’s  blood,  if  I  could  only  strike 
one  blow  for  Ireland !  I’d  be  satisfied  to  die  of  my  wounds 
then,  for  I’d  die  happy  in  her  cause.’ 

I  have  heard  declarations  as  ardent  from  Irishmen  in 
other  parts  of  the  South — by  men  who  had  borne  them¬ 
selves  bravely  during  the  war ;  and  though  many  of  them 
declared  their  mistrust  of  certain  of  the  Fenian  leaders,  and 
even  a  dislike  to  the  movement  itself,  still  all  expressed 
themselves  in  this  fashion,  £  If  I  could  see  my  way  clearly—- 
if  I  could  only  trust  the  men  in  New  York — if  I  thought  I 
could  do  Ireland  any  good,  or  give  her  a  chance,  I  would 
go  in  for  it  at  every  risk.’  Others  boasted  that  they  were 
members  of  the  organisation — that  they  were  ready,  at  any 
moment,  to  unsheathe  the  sword  again — that  they  did  not 
care  who  or  what  the  leaders  were  ;  they  were  for  any 
organisation  that  kept  alive  the  national  feeling,  and  pre¬ 
pared  Irishmen  to  avail  themselves  of  the  first  opportunity 
for  a  practical  movement  in  her  favour. 

So  startling  and  extraordinary  were  the  events  in  which 
these  men — Northerns  and  Southerns— were  actors,  that 
revolution  had  become  a  familiar  idea  to  their  minds  ;  and 
such  were  the  privations  and  hardships  they  had  endured, 
such  the  sacrifices  they  had  made,  such  the  dangers  they 
had  gone  through  almost  daily*  during  a  protracted  war, 
in  sustainment  of  the  cause  to  which  they  had  been 
devoted  on  either  side,  that  the  risk  of  life  in  the  attain¬ 
ment  of  a  great  object,  or  in  furtherance  of  a  cherished 
purpose,  is  regarded  by  them  as  a  light  matter,  if,  indeed,  it 
is  regarded  by  them  at  all.  They  have  been  too  familiar 
with  Death — have  looked  the  King  of  Terrors  too  many 
times  in  the  face — not  to  contemplate  the  possible  loss  of 


600 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


life  with  the  utmost  indifference ;  added  to  which,  such  is 
the  enthusiasm  by  which  they  are  animated — an  enthusiasm 
at  once  tierce  and  exalted,  springing  from  the  two-fold 
passion  of  love  and  hate,  devotion  and  revenge — that  it 
renders  the  idea  of  the  sacrifice  of  life  elevating  and  en¬ 
nobling  rather  than  discouraging  or  repelling. 

Down  in  the  depths  of  a  mine  in  Illinois,  the  workers 
in  which  were  Irish  to  a  man,  I  found  the  same  feeling  of 
passionate  love,  the  same  feeling  of  passionate  hate.  It 
was  a  strange  scene,  and  not  without  its  attraction.  In 
one  of  the  central  passages  of  the  mine,  not  more  than  five 
feet  in  height,  its  prevailing  murkiness  pierced  here  and 
there  by  the  red  light  of  a  small  lamp,  wms  a  truck,  in 
which  were  four  men — two  recumbent,  as  if  on  a  couch  ;  the 
other  two  sitting  one  on  each  side  of  that  most  uncomfort¬ 
able  carriage.  The  group  consisted  of  the  two  visitors — 
mvself  and  a  substantial  friend,  who  did  not  much  admire 
the  dark  shadows,  the  low  ceiling,  and  the  strange  sounds 
of  this  underground  world ;  together  with  one  of  the 
‘bosses,’  and  a  remarkably  intelligent  and  younger  man. 
The  miners  had  each  their  lamp  fastened  in  front  of  their 
caps,  while  the  visitors  held  theirs  in  their  hands.  The  gal¬ 
loping  mule  had  been  arrested  in  his  course  by  a  stoppage 
occasioned  by  something  ahead ;  and  for  a  considerable 
time — it  seemed  an  age  to  my  stout  friend  by  my  side — 
conversation  was  the  only  resource  of  the  party  of  four. 
In  a  company  consisting  of  four  Irishmen,  it  would  be 
strange  if  the  conversation  did  not  fall  on  Irish  affairs, 
especially  at  a  time  when  the  State-trials  in  Canada  were 
then  going  on.  My  excellent  friend,  who  shared  with 
me  the  couch  of  straw,  though  an  ardent  Irishman,  thought 
only  of  how  soon  he  should  get  out  of  the  mine,  and  up 
into  the  bright  world  above  ;  and  for  the  moment  the  Irish 
Question  lost  all  attraction  for  his  ears.  I  must  confess  to 
having  taken  the  ‘legal  and  constitutional,  side  in  the  argu¬ 
ment  which  sprang  up ;  but  it  found  little  favour  either 


DOWN  IN  THE  MINE. 


G01 

with  the  fiery  younger  man,  or  with  the  more  sedate 
boss.’  Only  through  courtesy,  and  that  not  a  little 
strained  either,  would  they  tolerate  the  mention  of  modera¬ 
tion,  or  even  admit  that  an  Irishman  could  love  his  country 
sincerely,  and  even  ardently,  and  yet  oppose  those 
who  should  seek  to  bring  about  changes  by  violence 
and  bloodshed.  And  as  I  reclined  in  my  triumphal  car,  I 
was  harangued  in  fiery  accents  by  the  younger  miner,  on 
‘  the  wrongs  of  Ireland,  and  the  iniquities  of  the  British 
Government.’  He  had  the  history  of  the  Union  and 
the  story  of  the  Irish  Rebellion  by  heart ;  and  as  he  re¬ 
ferred  to  some  thrilling  event,  or  mentioned  some  famous 
name,  there  was  a  deep  murmur  of  satisfaction  from  the 
‘  boss,’  whose  ‘  Thrue  for  you,  boy !  ’  seemed  to  impart  an 
additional  swing  to  the  oratory  of  his  companion..  They 
would  not  believe  in  the  naval  or  military  power  of  Eng¬ 
land — that,  according  to  them,  as  to  most  others  whom  I 
subsequently  met,  was  a  thing  of  the  past.  ‘  And,  after  all, 
what  was  it  to  the  power  of  America  ? — where  were  armies 
like  hers  ? — where  iron-clads,  and  monitors,  and  turret- 
ships,  such  as  she  could  turn  out  at  a  moment’s  notice, 
as  she  did  during  the  Rebellion  ?  No ;  England  was  to 
go  dowrn,  and  Ireland  was,  under  Providence,  to  be  the 
instrument  of  her  ruin.’  Some  of  the  miners  had  gone 
before,  and  others  would  go  again,  when  the  occasion  arose, 
to  strike  a  blow  at  ‘  the  oppressor  of  their  country  ;  ’  and 
there  was  scarcely  a  man  in  the  mine  who  did  not  joyfully 
subscribe  to  the  Eenian  fund,  and  would  not  continue  to  do 
so  ;  for  though  they  might  not  succeed  one  time,  they 
would  another.  The  ‘  boss’  had  not*much  to  say,  but  that 
was  to  the  point.  ‘  He  didn’t  care  about  the  money — he 
could  spare  that ;  but  he’d  give  his  life  if  necessary,  and 
gladly  too,  for  the  country  that  he  wTas  ever  thinking  of, 
and  that  was  dear  to  his  heart.’  And  the  ‘  boss  ’  looked 
to  be  an  earnest  man,  who  said  what  he  meant,  and  would 
do  what  he  said.  The  young  man  made  a  boast  of  a  fact 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


602 

of  which  he  might  well  be  proud — that,  although  there 
were  between  200  and  300  Irishmen  in  the  mine,  there 
were  not  six  drunkards  among  the  entire  number.  They 
were  hard-working,  laborious,  and  zealous,  proud  of  the 
success  of  the  mine,  and  not  less  so  of  their  own  well- 
earned  reputation  for  sobriety  and  honesty.  True,  these 
were  humble  toilers  ;  but  they  were  the  very  opposite  of 
the  scamps  and  rowdies  who  are  supposed  to  constitute  the 
strength  of  the  anti-English  organisation  in  America.  Nor 
had  they  the  remotest  intention  or  hope  of  ever  deriving 
any  personal  advantage  from  the  sacrifices  they  made,  or 
were  prepared  to  make,  for  ‘  the  cause  ;  ’ — love  of  their 
native  land,  and  they  desire  to  see  her  ‘  happy  and  inde¬ 
pendent  ’  were  all-sufficient  motives  with  them. 

According  to  a  system  of  logic,  with  the  force  and  justice 
of  which  they  are  thoroughly  satisfied,  certain  classes  of 
the  Irish  in  America — indeed,  the  majority  of  them — hold 
the  British  Government  responsible  for  all  the  evils  of 
Ireland  ;  and  at  the  door  of  Government  and  Parham  ent 
are  also  laid  the  responsibility  of  the  wrongs  done  by 
individuals  with  the  sanction  of  the  law,  and  the  passive 
assent  of  the  legislature.  After  all,  it  is  not  to  be  wonde  red 
at  that  Irishmen  in  America  should  adopt  the  logic  of  E  ng- 
lishmen  in  Parliament.  If  a  people  are  discontented ,  the 
fault  must  lie  with  those  who  govern  them,’  has  been  more 
than  once  heard  of  late  years  in  the  British  House  of 
Commons  ;  and  though  the  axiom  may  have  been  applied 
to  a  foreign  people  and  a  foreign  government,  an  Irishman 
might  be  excused  for  holding  it  of  equal  force  when  applied 
nearer  home.  I  can  answer  for  it,  that  in  this  rough  and 
ready  manner  even  the  humblest  men  instinctively  reason. 
In  fact,  the  logic  is  there  ready  for  their  use. 

Visiting  a  farm-house  in  a  Western  State,  I  found  the 
owner,  a  man  verging  on  sixty,  in  the  midst  of  his  family, 
sons  and  daughters,  fine  specimens  of  the  Irish  race,  with 
I  he  glow7  of  health  on  their  cheeks,  and  vigour  and  life  in 


ONE  OF  THE  CAUSES  OF  ANTI-ENGLISH  FEELING.  C03 


every  movement.  A  quarter  of  a  century  before,  the 
owner  of  that  house  and  farm  was  evicted  under  circum¬ 
stances  of  singularly  painful  severity, — his  cottage  had 
been  assailed  by  the  c  crowbar  brigade/  and  he  and  his  wife 
had  barely  time  to  snatch  their  children  from  the  crash¬ 
ing  ruin  of  wThat  had  been  their  home  ;  and  in  his  heart 
he  cherished  a  feeling  of  hatred  and  vengeance,  not  so 
much  against  the  individual  by  whom  the  wrong  was 
perpetrated,  as  against  the  Government  by  which  it  was 
sanctioned,  and  under  whose  authority  it  was  inflicted. 
He  had  not  the  least  objection  to  tell  of  his  difficulties  in 
the  new  country,  for  he  had  every  reason  to  be  proud  of 
his  sturdy  energy,  and  his  hard  struggles  for  the  first  few 
years ;  but,  whatever  the  subject  of  which  he  spoke,  he 
would  invariably  contrive  to  wander  back  to  the  memorable 
day  of  his  eviction,  when,  as  he  said,  che  and  his  were 
turned  out  like  dogs — worse  than  dogs — on  the  road-side.’ 
‘  See,  sir !  he  exclaimed,  ‘  I  tell  you  what  it  is,  and  you 
may  believe  me  when  I  say  it,  though  I  love  the  old 
country — and  God  knows  I  do  that  same — I  would  not 
take  a  present  of  200  acres  of  the  finest  land  in  my  own 
county,  and  have  to  live  under  the  British  Government.’ 
‘  Not  if  the  British  Government  had  anything  to  do  with 
it,  I  suppose,’  said  the  wife,  as  if  explaining  her  husband’s 
assertion,  which  she  seemed  to  regard  as  reasonable  and 
natural.  ‘  I’ll  never  forgive  that  Government  the  longest 
day  I  live.’  c  Why  then,  indeed,  Daniel,  it’s  time  to  for¬ 
give  them  and  everybody  now,’  put  in  the  wife,  ‘  for  sure, 
if  that  same  didn’t  happen,  you  would  not  be  here  this 
blessed  day,  with  your  400  acres  of  fine  land,  and  plenty 
for  all  of  us,  and  the  schooling  for  the  children,  and  no 
one  to  say  “  boo  ”  to  us,  and  all  our  own !  May  the  Lord 
make  us  thankful  for  his  mercies!’  ‘Well,  Mary,  no 
thanks  to  the  British  Government  for  that, — ’twasn’t 
for  my  good  the  blackguards  done  it — and  if  you  and  the 
children  didn’t  perish  that  day,  ’twas  the  Lord’s  will,  not 


C04 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


theirs/  ‘  Why  then,  Daniel,  I  can’t  say  again  that  ’ — and 
tlie  wife  gave  in.  The  sons,  one  of  whom  had  fought  for 
the  Union,  sympathised  more  with  the  vengeful  feeling  of 
their  father  than  with  the  Christian  spirit  of  their  mother. 

A  similar  instance  of  this  holding  the  British  Govern¬ 
ment  responsible  for  an  act  of  individual  cruelty  was 
related  to  me  by  an  eminent  Irish  ecclesiastic  in  one  of 
the  Eastern  States.  In  the  course  of  his  periodical  visi¬ 
tation  he  became  acquainted  with  a  respectable  and 
thriving  Irish  farmer,  who  appeared  to  be  in  great  comfort, 
his  land  in  fine  condition,  and  his  stock  of  cattle  of  a  good 
description  and  abundant.  This  man  was  always  glad  to 
see  the  priest  coming  round,  and  thought  c  he  could  never 
make  enough  of  him.’  A  widower  with  several  children, 
his  house  was  managed  by  his  wife’s  sister,  who  had 
altogether  devoted  herself  to  their  welfare.  He  was  a  man 
of  abstemious  habits,  regular  life,  and  inclined  to  reserve, 
as  if,  as  the  clergyman  said,  there  was  some  hind  of  cloud 
always  over  his  mind.  Nothing  could  exceed  his  care  in 
the  religious  training  of  his  young  people,  in  which  task  he 
wras  well  seconded  by  their  excellent  aunt.  But  there  was 
this  singularity  about  him, — that,  whatever  his  desire  to 
have  his  family  grow  up  in  the  practice  of  their  faith,  he 
never  would  go  to  confession.  The  priest,  as  was  his  duty, 
spoke  to  him  more  than  once  on  the  subject ;  but  he  was 
answered  evasively,  and  put  off  on  one  plea  or  another. 
At  length,  determined  to  push  the  matter  home,  he  said 
to  him — ‘Now  I  must  speak  to  you  seriously,  and  you 
must  listen  to  me  as  your  pastor,  who  is  answerable  before 
God  for  the  welfare  of  his  flock.  Your  children  are  now 
growing  up  about  you,  and  they  will  be  men  and  women 
in  a  short  time,  and  you  should  show  them  an  example  in 
your  own  person  of  a  Catholic  father.  You  are  aware  how 
important  it  is  that  they  should  be  strong  in  their  faith 
before  thev  become  men  and  women,  and  £0  into  the 
world,  where  they  will  no  longer  be  subject  to  your 


MORE  OF  THE  CAUSES  OF  BAD  FEELING. 


605 


control,  or  that  of  their  good  pious  aunt ;  but  if  you  don't 
yourself  set  them  the  example,  how  can  you  expect  they 
will  always  continue  as  they  now  are — devoted  to  their 
religion  ?  Tell  me,  then,  why  won’t  you  go  to  your  duty 
here — where  God  has  prospered  your  industry — as  you 
did  in  the  old  country  in  former  times?’  ‘Well,  Father,’ 
he  replied,  c  I  tell  you  what  it  is — I  can’t  go ;  that’s  the 
truth  of  it,  and  for  a  good  reason  too.  I  know  my  religion 
well  enough  to  tell  me  I  must  forgive  my  enemies,  or  I 
can’t  get  absolution — that  I  know  sure  enough,  for  my 
mother  wasn’t  without  telling  me  as  much,  and  I  never 
forgot  it,  and  ’tis  always  before  me,  sleeping  and  waking. 
Then,  as  you  must  know  the  truth  of  it — and  ’tis  the  blessed 
truth  I’m  telling  you — I  can’t  and  I  won’t  forgive  them — 
I  never  can,  and  what’s  more,  I  never  will,  to  my  dying  day. 
Father,  that’s  just  the  whole  of  it.’  ‘Nonsense,  man,’  said 
the  priest,  *  that’s  not  the  language  of  a  Christian — an  infi¬ 
del  might  speak  to  me  in  that  manner.  Why,  the  Redeem¬ 
er,  "who  saved  you  and  yours  by  His  blood,  forgave  His  ene¬ 
mies — and  you,  a  Christian  man  !  brought  up  in  a  Catholic 
country,  to  talk  of  not  forgiving  your  enemies !  ’  ‘  True 

for  you,  Father — all  true — true  as  the  Gospel — I  know  it ; 
but  still  there’s  something  in  me  that  I  can’t  get  over. 
I  told  your  reverence  I  was  turned  out  of  my  land,  where 
my  father  and  his  people  before  him  lived,  I  don’t  know 
how  long.  Well,  sure  enough,  that  same  has  been  many 
a  better  man’s  case,  and  more’s  the  pity.  But  that  wasn’t 
it,  but  the  way  ’twas  done.  There  didn’t  come  out  of  the 
heavens  a  bitterer  morning  when  the  sheriff  was  at  my 
door  with  the  crowbar  men,  and  a  power  of  peelers,  and 
the  army  too,  as  if  ’twas  going  to  war  they  were,  instead 
of  coming  to  drive  an  honest  man  and  his  family  from 
house  and  home.  My  poor  ould  father  was  at  his  last 
with  rheumatics,  and  the  doctor  said  ’twas  coming  to  his 
heart — and  my  wife  too,  saving  your  reverence’s  presence, 
was  big  with  child.  ’Twas  a  bad  time,  God  knows,  for  us 


COG 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


to  be  put  out.  I  asked  the  agent,  wlio  was  there,  for  a 
week,  to  see  and  get  a  place ;  but  I  couldn’t  get  a  day — - 
no,  not  an  hour ;  he  said  the  law  should  take  its  coorse, 
and  it  did  take  its  coorse,  and  a  bad  wicked  coorse  it  was. 
My  mother — she  did  it,  Father,  before  I  could  stop  her — - 
knelt  down  to  him  in  her  grey  hairs ;  but  ’twas  no  good — 
you  might  as  well  talk  to  that  stone  there.  I  told  them 
the  state  of  my  poor  ould  father — that  was  no  use  either  ; 
out  we  should  go  into  the  bitter  could,  and  not  as  much  as 
a  place  to  put  our  heads !  There  were  others  as  bad  as 
ourselves,  for  the  whole  townland  was  4  under  notice.' 
I  can’t  tell  you  all  that  happened  that  morning,  or  that 
night — I  was  like  a  man  out  of  his  rayson,  that  didn’t 
know  what  he  was  about,  or  what  was  happening  to  him. 
But  this  I  know  well  enough — that  my  ould  father  was 
taken  out  on  the  bed  ho  lay  on,  and  he  died  that  night  in 
the  gripe  of  the  ditch,  under  the  shelter  we  made  for  him 
with  a  few  bits  of  boords  and  sticks  and  a  quilt ;  and  my 
wife — God  rest  her  blessed  sow]  this  day  ! — was  brought 
to  bed — what  a  bed  it  was ! — of  UxQ  youngest  child — she 
you  heard  just  now  in  her  catechism  ;  and  my  poor  wife — 
my  poor  girl,  Father,  died  in  my  arms  the  next  day!’ 
Here  the  strong  man,  with  a  tierce  gesture,  dashed  the 
tears  from  his  eyes.  c  Well,  Father,  I  went  down  on  my 
knees,  and,  the  Lord  pardon  me !  I  swore  I’d  never  forgive 
that  night  and  day,  and  the  men  that  done  that  wrong — 
and  I  never  will — and  I’ll  never  forgive  the  bloody  English 
Government  that  allowed  a  man  to  be  treated  worse  than 
I’d  treat  a  dog,  let  lone  a  Christian,  and  sent  their  peelers 
and  their  army  to  help  them  to  do  it  to  me  and  others. 
No,  Father,  ’tis  no  use  your  talking  to  me,  I  can’t  forgive 
them ;  and  what’s  more,  I  teach  my  children  to  hate  them 
too.  It  would  be  like  turning  false  to  her  that’s  in  the 
grave — the  mother  of  my  children — if  I  ever  forgave  that 
bitter  day  and  bitter  night.’  Again  and  again,  for  years, 
the  zealous  priest  never  ceased  to  urge  on  that  dark  spirit 


WHAT  GRAVE  AND  QUIET  MEN  THINK.  607 

the  necessity  of  imitating’  the  Divine  example ;  and  it  was 
not  until  the  illness  of  the  daughter  whose  birthplace  was 
the  ditch-side  in  the  bleak  winter,  softened  the  father’s 
heart,  that  he  bowed  his  head  in  humility,  or  that  the 
word  ‘forgiveness’  passed  his  lips.  But  forgiveness  did 
not  necessitate  love ;  and  though  he  had  never  taken 
an  active  part  in  any  organisation,  yet  whatever  was  osten¬ 
sibly  adverse  to  the  British  Government  had  his  sym¬ 
pathy,  and  that  of  his  children. 

I  do  not  care  to  speculate  as  to  the  number  of  the  class 
of  evicted  tenants  scattered  through  the  United  States, 
whether,  like  the  men  just  mentioned,  prosperous  posses¬ 
sors  of  land,  or  adding  unduly  to  the  population  of  some  of 
the  great  towns ;  but  wherever  they  exist,  there  are  to  be 
found  willing  contributors  to  Fenian  funds,  and  enthusi¬ 
astic  supporters  of  anti-British  organisations. 

Then  there  are  the  descendants  of  ‘  the  men  of  ’98,’  to 
whom  their  fathers  left  a  legacy  of  hate.  Americans  these 
may  be,  and  proud  of  their  birth-right ;  yet  they  cherish 
an  affection  for  the  land  of  their  fathers,  and  a  deep- 
seated  hostility  to  the  country  which  they  were  taught  to 
regard  as  its  oppressor.  From  the  date  of  the  Irish 
rebellion  to  the  present  hour  every  successive  agitation 
or  disturbance  has  driven  its  promoters,  its  sympathisers, 
or  its  victims,  across  the  ocean ;  and  thus,  from  year  to 
year,  from  generation  to  generation,  has  an  anti-English 
feeling  been  constantly  quickened  into  active  life,  and  been 
widely  diffused  throughout  America ;  until  now,  not  only 
does  it  permeate  the  whole  Irish  mass,  but  it  is  cherished 
as  fondly  and  fiercely  in  the  log  cabin  of  the  prairie  or 
the  forest  as  it  is  in  the  midst  of  the  bustle  and  movement 
of  the  city. 

I  have  met  in  many  parts  of  the  Union  grave,  quiet 
men  of  business,  Irishmen  who,  though  holding  their 
opinions  with  the  resolute  firmness  common  to  their 
temperament  and  tone  of  thought,  rarely  take  part  iu 


608 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


public  matters,  and  yet  are  interested  in  what  is  passing 
around  them,  especially  in  whatever  concerns  the  honour 
of  their  race  and  country.  From  men  of  this  class  I 
heard  the  most  strongly  expressed  opposition  to  the 
Fenian  movement,  and  occasionally  the  bitterest  contempt 
of  its  leaders.  Jealous  of  the  reputation  of  their  country¬ 
men,  and,  like  all  men  of  high  spirit,  peculiarly  sensitive 
to  ridicule,  they  were  ashamed  of  the  miserable  squabbles 
and  dissensions  so  common  among  the  various  branches  or 
sections  into  which  the  Irish  organisation  is,  or  w'as  then, 
divided,  and  they  experienced  the  keenest  humiliation  as 
some  new  disaster  rendered  the  previous  boasting  more 
glaring,  or  more  painfully  absurd.  Yet  amongst  these 
grave,  quiet  men  of  business — these  men  of  model  lives — 
these  men  in  whose  personal  integrity  any  bank  in  the 
country  would  place  unlimited  trust ;  amongst  these  men, 
England  has  enemies,  not  friends.  They  are  opposed  to 
Fenianism,  not  because  it  menaces  England  but  because  it 
compromises  Ireland.  So  much  alike  do  these  men  think 
and  express  themselves,  though  perhaps  a  thousand  miles 
apart,  that  one  would  be  inclined  to  suppose  them  in  con¬ 
stant  communication  and  intercourse  with  each  other.  Not 
to  say  in  substance,  but  almost  literally,  this  is  the  manner 
in  which  I  have  heard  a  number  of  these  grave,  quiet, 
steady  business  men  refer  to  the  Fenian  movement :  £  I 
‘  strongly  object  to  this  Fenian  organisation,  for  many 
‘  reasons.  In  the  first  place,  it  keeps  up  a  distinct  na- 
‘  tionality  in  the  midst  of  the  American  population,  and 
‘  it  is  our  interest  to  be  merged  in  this  nation  as  quickly 
‘  as  may  be.  In  the  second  place,  I  have  no  confidence 
‘  in  the  men  at  its  head ;  how  can  I  ?  Which  of  them  am 
‘  I  to  believe  ?  If  I  believe  one,  I  can’t  the  other.  Then 
‘  what  they  propose  is  absurd.  They  talk  nonsense  about 
‘  going  to  war  with  England,  and  England  at  peace  with 
‘  the  world ;  and  every  additional  disaster  only  rivets 
‘  Ireland’s  chains  more  stronglv.  If,  indeed,  this  conn  trv 


IF  THEY  ONLY  COULD  ‘SEE  THEIR  WAYV 


m 


‘  were  at  war  with  England,  that  would  be  quite  another 
4  thing  ;  and,  after  all,  of  what  good  would  that  be  for 
4  Ireland  ? — would  it  better  her  condition  ? — would  it  be 
*  worth  the  risk  ?  At  any  rate,  until  such  an  emergency 
‘  should  arise,  it  is  a  vexatious  thing  to  see  the  hard-earned 
‘money  of  our  people  going  to  keep  up  a  mischievous 
‘delusion.  But  at  the  same  time,  I  must  say  this  for  my- 
‘  self,  if  I  could  see  my  way  clearly — if  I  thought  that  a  fair 
‘  chance  offered  of  serving  Ireland,  and  making  her  happy, 
‘  I  would  willingly  sacrifice  half  what  I  have  in  the  w'orld  in 
c  the  attempt.  The  opportunity  may  come,  in  God’s  good 
‘  time  ;  but  it  has  not  come  yet,  and  even  if  it  did,  the 
‘  men  at  the  head  are  not  the  men  to  do  the  work.’ 

There  are  others — and  they  are  to  be  met  with  in  every 
State  of  the  Union — who  are  of  the  O’Connell  school ;  in 
fact,  they  are  as  much  of  the  £  moral  force  ’  and  ‘  not  a 
single  drop  of  blood  ’  policy  now,  as  if  they  were  still 
subscribers  to  Conciliation  Hall,  wore  the  Bepeal  button, 
and  exhibited  a  card  of  membership  over  the  mantle-shelf. 
They  prefer  the  open  ways  of  the  constitution  to  secret 
oaths  and  midnight  drillings  ;  and  when  they  read  in  the 
Irish  newTs  the  miserable  record  of  a  new  failure,  they  ex¬ 
claim — ‘  Oh,  if  these  people  would  only  follow  O ’Connell’s 
advice  !  He  carried  Emancipation  without  the  loss  of  a  life, 
or  the  spilling  of  a  drop  of  blood.’  And  yet  these  ‘moral- 
force  ’  men  are  not  to  be  implicitly  trusted  for  consistency  : 
if  they,  too,  *  saw  their  way,’  and  matters  really  came  to  a 
crisis,  they  might  be  found  contributing  their  $10,000,  or 
their  $20,000,  or  their  $50,000  to  send  a  ship  to  sea  with 
the  green  flag  flying  at  her  peak. 

If  it  be  asked,  is  this  anti-British  feeling  likely  to  die 
out  ?  Considering  that  it  has  so  long  existed,  and  that  it 
is  more  intense,  as  well  as  more  active  at  this  day  than  at 
any  time  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  it  is  rather 
difficult  to  suppose  it  would,  or  will.  Emigration  is  adding 
yearly,  monthly,  weekly  to  its  strength.  Few  who  land 


610 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


at  Castle  Garden  that  are  not  prepared  by  previous  sym¬ 
pathy  to  join  or  to  support  whatever  anti-British  organi¬ 
sation  may  exist ;  nor  are  they  long  in  America  before 
they  catch  the  strong  contagion  of  its  bitter  hostility — 
assuming  they  have  not  already  felt  it  at  home.  Every 
batch  of  500  or  1,000,  every  new  50,000,  or  100,000,  while 
adding  to  the  Irish  population — the  Irish  Nation — at  the 
American  side  of  the  Atlantic,  strengthens  the  Irish  ele¬ 
ment,  and  deepens  and  intensifies  the  anti-English  feeling. 
It  may  subside — so  may  the  sea  ;  but,  like  the  sea,  the 
first  breath  will  set  it  again  in  motion,  while  a  storm  would 
lash  it  into  fury.  Thus  it  is  with  that  vast,  deep-lying, 
all-pervading  sentiment  which  exists  in  the  Irish  heart — 
which  is  cherished  as  something  holy  (and  in  its  unselfish 
aspirations  there  is  nothing  mean  or  ignoble) — which  is 
fed  by  tradition,  nourished  by  history,  kept  alive  by  in¬ 
stances  of  legal  wrong  or  sanctioned  oppression,  stimulated 
by  the  musical  rhythm  and  stirring  verse  of  the  ballad, 
roused  into  a  blaze  by  appeals  that  flush  the  cheek  and 
kindle  the  fire  of  the  eye.  It  may  subside  ;  but  it  is 
difficult  to  think  how,  without  some  counteracting  cause, 
it  can  die  out. 

The  thorough-going  Fenians — whether  leaders,  orators, 
or  rank  and  file — would,  if  anything,  prefer  that  the 
admitted  cause  of  Irish  discontent  should  not  be  removed ; 
for  they  naturally  argue — ‘  If  our  hopes  of  regenerating 
Ireland  be  based  upon  revolution,  it  is  better  for  our 
purpose  that  the  various  causes  and  sources  of  discontent 
and  disaffection  should  be  allowed  to  exist,  and  by  their 
prolonged  existence  irritate  and  gall  the  public  mind  more 
and  more,  and  thus  keep  the  people  in  a  condition  most 
favourable  to  revolutionary  teaching.  Let  the  sources  of 
discontent  be  dried  up,  the  causes  of  anger  and  irrita¬ 
tion  be  removed,  and  what  can  be  hoped  for  then  ?  ’  If 
half  a  dozen  new  grievances  could  be  improvised  to-mor¬ 
row,  their  announcement  would  be  hailed  with  gladness  bv 

O  v 


A  GRIEVANCE  REDRESSED  IS  A  WEAPON  BROKEN.  Cl 


those  who  desire  to  keep  alive  the  Fenian  organisation, 
and  impart  a  more  vengeful  spirit  to  the  feeling  against 
England.  A  grievance  redressed  is  a  weapon  broken.  I 
remember  the  look  of  genuine  annoyance  with  which  a 
high-pressure  Fenian,  who  introduced  himself  to  me  in  a 
Northern  State,  received  information  on  a  subject  having 
inference  to  Irish  trade  and  manufactures.  He  desired  to 
learn — for  an  oration,  as  I  afterwards  understood, — what 
were  the  special  restrictions  which  the  jealousy  of  England 
still  imposed  on  the  industry  and  trade  of  Ireland.  He 
was  filled  with  the  memory  of  the  ‘discouragement’  of  the 
Irish  woollens  by  the  same  William  respecting  whose 
memory  so  much  nonsense  is  uttered  on  certain  anniver¬ 
saries  ;  and  he  glowed  as  he  thought  of  the  indignant 
oratory  of  the  Irish  House  of  Commons.  But  he  knew 
little — indeed,  he  did  not  desire  to  know  it — of  the  actual 
state  of  things  at  the  present  hour  ;  and  when  I  assured 
him  that,  so  far  as  the  law  stood,  the  merchants,  manu¬ 
facturers,  and  business  men  of  Ireland  were  on  a  complete 
equality  with  their  brethren  in  England,  he  could  scarcely 
bring  himself  to  believe  what  I  said.  He  was  literally 
disgusted.  If  he  could  only  have  told  his  eager  audience 
that,  at  the  moment  he  stood  on  that  platform,  Queen 
Victoria  was  imitating  the  example  of  ‘  the  glorious,  pious, 
and  immortal  William  of  Orange,’  and  ‘  discouraging  ’  the 
linen  trade  of  Ireland,  as  her  predecessor  had  discouraged 
the  woollen  trade,  what  a  stroke  for  the  orator  !  And  if  ho 
could  have  added,  that  the  burning  words  of  Grattan  had 
been  in  vain,  and  the  labelled  canon  of  College  Green 
without  their  significance,  and  that  the  jealousy  of  the 
Saxon  monopolists  was  as  strong  in  the  Senate  of  England 
that  day  as  when  a  monarch  basely  listened  to  the  selfish 
churls  who  were  afraid  of  Irish  competition,  he  would  have 
convinced  his  audience  that  revolution  was  the  only  remedy 
for  such  oppression.  He  cherished  the  belief,  that  the 
injustice  had  only  grown  more  venerable  ;  and  I  almost 


THE  HUSH  IN  AMERICA. 


1512 

sympathised  with  his  distress  as  I  rudely  demolished  the 
raw  material  of  his  glowing  eloquence.  Would  to  Heaven 
that  apathy  and  folly,  timidity  and  prejudice,  had  not  left 
so  many  real  grievances  still  unredressed  ! 

The  powerful  Public  Press  of  America  is  favourable,  on 
the  whole,  to  what  may  be  termed  ‘the  Irish  cause/  as 
distinct  from  any  special  organisation  or  movement  in  its 
ostensible  interest.  There  are  very  few  journals  in  the 
United  States  that  do  not  either  broadly  assert  or  unre¬ 
servedly  admit  that  Ireland  is  badly  governed — that  she  is 
the  Poland  of  England.  Some  journals  vehemently  oppose 
the  Fenian  movement,  and  denounce  its  leaders  and  tlieir 
objects  in  the  most  unmeasured  terms ;  but  the  same 
journals  treat  the  Irish  question  with  sympathy  and  re¬ 
spect.  The  fact  is,  there  are  not  many  journals  in  the 
United  States  which  are  not,  to  a  certain  extent,  under  the 
control  or  influence  of  Irishmen,  or  the  sons  of  Irishmen. 
They  are  edited,  or  part  edited,  or  sub-edited,  or  reported 
for,  by  men  of  Irish  birth  or  blood  ;  and  with  the  birth  and 
the  blood  come  sympathies  for  the  old  country,  and  an  un¬ 
friendly  feeling  towards  ‘  her  hereditary  oppressor.’  Then 
there  are  papers  exclusively  Irish  in  their  character,  such  as 
the  Boston  Pilot,  which  I  heard  described  as  the  Vade  Mecum 
of  the  Irish  emigrant — the  Irish  American ,  or  the  Monitor, 
a  well-written  paper  in  San  Francisco ;  and  now  John 
Mitchell  is  bringing  the  influence  of  thorough  sincerity, 
the  weight  of  personal  sacrifice,  and  perhaps  one  of  the 
ablest  pens  in  America  to  the  anti-Britisli  cause  :  then 
there  are,  in  almost  every  direction,  journals  of  various 
shades  of  opinion  as  to  policy,  but  in  feeling  and  principle 
thoroughly  Irish.  So  that,  although  there  may  be  decided 
difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  mode,  or  the  means,  or  the 
opportunity  of  serving  Ireland,  and  a  still  more  strongly 
marked  difference  of  opinion  as  to  a  special  organisation, 
and  more  so  as  to  its  leaders,  there  is  scarcely  any  difference 
of  opinion  as  to  the  existence  of  Irish  wrong,  and  the 


THE  IRISH  ELEMENT. 


613 


justice  of  the  Irish  cause.  Thus  the  Public  Opinion  of  the 
country  affords  its  sanction  to  the  convictions  of  the  Irish 
in  America,  and  a  moral  if  not  an  active  support  to  efforts 
unfriendly  and  even  hostile  to  England. 

The  events  of  the  late  war  have  not  added,  either  in 
the  North  or  in  the  South,  to  partisans  of  England,  or  to 
her  defenders  in  the  Press.  The  North  blames  her  for 
having  gone  too  far  in  recognition  of  the  South — the  South 
is  indignant  with  her  for  not  having  go^.e  farther ;  and 
that  terrible  ‘Alabama’  has  caused  many  a  man  in  the 
North  to  grind  his  teeth  with  rage,  and  fiercely  pray  for  the 
opportunity  of  retaliation.  So,  altogether  independent  of 
whatever  sympathy  there  maybe  amongst  the  ‘full-blooded’ 
Americans  of  the  Northern  States  in  favour  of  the  Irish 
cause,  the  support  or  sanction,  whatever  it  may  be,  which 
the  Fenian  movement  receives  from  those  unconnected  with 
Ireland  by  birth  or  blood,  is  in  no  small  degree  the  result  of 
the  depredations  of  that  famous  cruiser.  It  may  be  also 
remarked,  that  the  Irish  at  both  sides  of  the  line  won  the 
respect  and  earned  the  gratitude  of  every  generous-minded 
man  of  Federacy  or  Confederacy  by  their  dauntless  valour 
and  unlimited  self-devotion.  The  Irish  have  purchased 
by  their  blood  a  claim  to  the  attention  of  America ;  and 
America  listens  with  sympathy  to  the  pleadings  of  her 
adopted  children,  who  have  made  her  interests,  her  honour 
and  her  glory,  theirs. 

The  Irish  element  being  constantly  on  the  increase,  it 
must,  as  a  matter  of  inevitable  necessity,  become  more 
influential,  more  powerful,  more  to  be  conciliated  and 
consulted — to  be  used,  or  to  be  abused;  and  it  need 
scarcely  be  said,  for  it  is  patent  and  notorious,  that  there 
are  those  who  will  use  and  who  will  abuse  it.  There  is 
no  country  in  the  world  in  which  elections  are  so  frequent 
as  the  United  States ;  and  the  humblest  citizen  being  in 
possession  of  the  franchise,  there  are  thus  afforded  almost 
innumerable  opportunities  of  appealing  to  the  prejudices 


614 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


or  pandering  to  the  passions  of  those  in  whom  is  reposed 
the  sovereign  power  of  election,  even  of  raising  the  suc¬ 
cessful  soldier  or  the  ambitious  statesman — nay,  the  rail- 
splitter  or  the  journeyman  tailor — to  the  loftiest  dignity 
within  the  limits  of  the  constitution.  Thus  we  hear  of 
Senators,  and  members  of  Congress,  and  Secretaries  of 
State,  and  candidates  for  the  Presidency,  or  even  holders 
of  that  office,  delivering  addresses,  proposing  resolutions, 
or  expressing  sentiments  favourable  to  Irish  nationality, 
and  tinged  with  a  more  or  less  decided  anti-British  spirit. 
Those  w7ho  thus  speak  or  act  may  be  honest  in  intention, 
may  really  desire  to  assist  Ireland,  may  believe  in  the 
justice  of  her  cause  and  in  the  probability  of  her  success ; 
or  they  may  not  care  a  rush  about  the  country  of  which 
they  so  eloquently  declaim,  and  may  regard  the  whole 
thing  as  so  much  moonshine,  only  useful  for  the  purposes 
of  political  capital ;  but  that  the  speeches  are  delivered, 
the  resolutions  proposed,  and  the  sentiments  expressed,  is 
known  to  the  world.  It  may  become  a  question — to  what 
lengths  will  these  declarations  go  ? — to  what  point  will 
these  professions  of  sympathy  reach  ? — how  far  will  these 
enthusiastic  friends  of  Ireland  advance  ? — or  at  what  line 
will  they  halt?  Whether  they  advance,  or  whether  they 
stop  short,  the  mischief  is  done  in  either  case — the  wreight 
of  their  name  and  influence  is  given  in  sanction  of 
a  sentiment  which,  so  far  as  the  Irish  are  regarded,  is 
honestly  and  sincerely  entertained.  The  occasion  may 
arise,  sooner  or  later,  when  difficulties  would  spring  up 
between  the  two  great  nations  at  either  side  of  the  Atlantic, 
and  these  occasions  may  sorely  perplex  the  men  who  thus 
deliberately  play  with  fire ;  but  if  they  do  arise,  one  thing 
at  least  is  certain, — the  Irish  vote  will  not  be  cast  into  the 
balance  on  the  side  of  peace.  In  whatever  party  England 
may  possibly  find  a  friend,  or  a  peace-maker,  it  will  not 
be  among  those  who  long  impatiently  for  the  chance  of 
another  Fontcnoy. 


BELIEF  IN  ENGLAND'S  DECAY. 


61$ 

A  strange  notion — indeed,  downright  delusion — easts 
in  the  Irish- American  mind  as  to  the  power  of  England. 
One  would  suppose,  from  listening  to  one  of  her  contem¬ 
ners,  that  England’s  day  was  gone — that  she  was  worn 
out  and  effete,  that  the  British  Lion  was  fangless,  as 
harmless  as  a  performing  poodle,  as  innocuous  as  a  stuffed 
specimen  in  a  travelling  show.  You  may  tell  the  scoffer, 
of  her  revenue  of  more  than  $350,000,000  in  gold,  and  how 
her  people  every  year  ungrudgingly  expend  $130,000,000 
in  gold  on  her  army  and  her  fleet ;  but  you  are  pooh- 
poohed,  and  answered,  that  her  day  is  past,  and  that  she 
will  go  to  pieces  at  the  first  shock.  ‘  Her  100,000,  or 
150,000  soldiers,  scattered,  over  the  world ;  wdrat  are  they  ? 
We  had  more  than  a  million  in  arms  at  the  close  of  the 
war,  besides  what  the  South  had.  What  is  she,  then,  to 
this  great  country  ?  We  ’ — the  speaker  is  an  Irishman  of  less 
than  thirty  years’  standing — ‘we  whipped  her  in  177G,  and 
wre  whipped  her  in  1812,  and  we’d  whip  her  again ;  and 

I  wish  to  God  we  had  the  chance  to-dav  before  to-morrow 

%/ 

— that’s  all.’ 

The  same  belief  in  the  power  of  America  and  the  decay 
of  England  is  as  strongly  entertained  by  the  civilian  as 
by  the  soldier,  by  the  female  contributor  to  the  funds  of 
the  local  ‘  circle,’  as  by  the  most  enthusiastic  of  its  mem¬ 
bers. 

The  announcements  made  through  the  cable,  of  the 
abortive  risings  in  February  and  March  of  this  year, 
thrilled  the  Fenian  heart  with  more  of  hope  than  anxiety; 
they  were  read  through  rose-tinted  glasses,  and  translated 
through  the  imagination.  Not  until  the  very  last  moment 
would  the  admission  be  made  that  the  whole  thing  was  an 
utter  failure ;  and  even  then,  there  were  many  who  would 
not,  or  who  could  not,  regard  it  as  a  delusion.  I  have 
before  me  at  this  moment  the  calm  steady  gaze,  replete 
with  confidence  and  enthusiasm,  of  the  Irishman  who 
supplied,  me  with  the  morning  papers,  as  his  first  words 


Glo 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


of  salutation  were — ‘Glorious  news  to-day,  sir!  Tli« 
eountry  is  up!’  I  asked,  ‘What  news?  what  country?5 
‘  Ireland,  to  be  sure.  She’s  up,  sir,  thank  God !  ’  When 
I  read  the  telegram,  I  instinctively  exclaimed — ‘  Sad 
news,  indeed — miserable,  miserable  news.’  ‘You  call  it 
sad  and  miserable  ! — I  call  it  glorious.’  I  told  him  he 
would  not  call  it  glorious,  if  he  knew  the  state  of  things  as 
well  as  I  did  ;  but  he  regarded  me  with  a  look  of  respect¬ 
ful  disdain.  He  would  believe  nothing  against  his  hopes. 
And  when,  at  last,  facts  were  too  powerful,  even  for  his 
seven-fold  credulity,  he  was  still  unconvinced.  It  was  a 
mischance,  a  momentary  check,  even  a  blunder ;  but  it 
would  be  all  right  soon ;  the  next  time  the  thing  would 
be  done  better.  And  he  was  only  a  type  of  a  class— who 
give,  and  give  largely,  of  their  hard  earnings,  to  sustain 
a  cause  on  which  they  have  set  their  hearts — a  class  whom 
no  reverse  can  discourage,  no  disaster  dismay,  no  treachery 
alienate  or  disgust.  This  faith  is  the  strength  of  the 
organisation — this  generous  self-sacrifice  its  unfailing 
resource.  It  is  idle  to  say  the  money  is  ‘  extorted,’ — it  as 
freely  and  gladly  given,  with  the  conviction  of  its  being  a 
holy  tribute,  offered  on  the  altar  of  country.  The  working 
man  takes  it  perhaps  more  often  from  his  family  than 
from  his  pleasures ;  but  he  still  gives  it  as  a  duty  as  well 
as  a  gratification.  The  female  ‘help’  will  deliberately  lay 
down  her  half-dollar  a  month,  or  whole  dollar  a  month,  as 
her  fixed  contribution  to  the  Fenian  funds  ;  and  should 
some  sudden  emergency  arise — some  occasion  for  still 
greater  sacrifice — she  will  pour  her  hoarded  dollars  into 
her  country’s  exchequer,  reserving,  it  may  be,  only  so  much 
as  she  intends  to  send  to  her  parents  at  home.  There  is 
a  kind  of  desperate  hopefulness  in  their  faith  ;  ‘  It  may 
not  be  this  time — perhaps  not ;  but  something  will  be  sure 
to  turn  up,  and  that  will  give  us  the  opportunity  we  want. ’ 

The  something  that  is  sure  to  turn  up  is,  of  course,  a  war 
with  England — an  event  which  would  be  hailed  with  a 


WAR  WITH  ENGLAND. 


<117 

shout  of  delight  by  the  Irish  in  America.  Imagination 
could  not  conceive  the  rapture,  the  frenzy,  with  which, 
from  every  side,  the  Irish  would  rush  to  that  war.  From 
the  remotest  State,  from  the  shores  of  the  Pacific,  from 
the  Southernmost  limits  of  Florida,  from  the  heart  of  the 
country,  from  the  Far  "West,  from  the  clearing  of  the  forest, 
from  the  home  on  the  prairie — from  the  mine,  the  factory, 
the  work-shop — from  the  river,  and  from  the  sea — they 
would  flock  to  the  upraised  banners,  equally  loved  and 
equally  sacred — the  green  flag  of  Erin,  and  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  of  the  Great  Republic.  As  it  were  with  a  bound, 
and  a  shriek  of  exultation,  the  Irish  would  rush  to  meet 
their  enemy — to  fight  out,  on  land  and  ocean,  the  feud  that 
has  survived  through  centuries — to  revenge,  if  so  they  could 
the  wrongs  inflicted  by  monarchs  and  soldiers  and  states¬ 
men,  by  confiscations  and  by  massacres,  by  penal  laws 
and  evil  policy.  Nay,  I  solemnly  believe  they  would  not 
desire  a  greater  boon  of  America  than  that  the  fighting 
should  be  left  entirely  to  themselves ;  and  never  did  mar¬ 
tyrs  more  joyfully  approach  the  stake,  in  which  they  beheld 
the  gate  of  Paradise,  than  would  these  Irish  exiles'  and 
their  descendants  march  to  battle  in  a  cause  that  gratified 
the  twin  passions  of  their  souls — love  and  hate.  And 
were  the  American  Government  so  forgetful  of  international 
obligation  as  to  close  their  eyes  to  what  might  be  going 
on,  and  allow  a  fortnight,  or  a  month,  to  pass  without 
any  active  interference ;  and  were  their  unwillingness  to 
act  a  matter  thoroughly  understood, — in  such  a  case,  the 
frontiers  of  Canada  would  be  passed  with  a  rush — and 
then! — why,  God  knows  what  then.  A  rupture  with 
England — to  cease  when?  Is  it  after  a  long  and  terrible 
or  sharp  and  wicked  contest,  which  would  end  with  the 
realisation  of  the  American  idea  of  the  natural  boundaries 
of  the  United  States  at  the  other  side  of  the  St.  Lawrence 
and  the  Lakes,  and  from  Labrador  to  the  Pacific?  The 
future  is  in  the  hands  of  Providence. 


618 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


Deplorable,  indeed,  would  a  deadly  struggle  be  between 
the  two  great  nations,  speaking  the  same  language,  in¬ 
heritors  of  a  common  literature,  linked  together  by  ties  of 
interest  as  of  blood — deplorable  to  the  dearest  interests  of 
humanity  and  civilisation  that  such  a  conflict  should  occur ; 
that  the  commerce  of  each  country  should  be  crippled  on 
the  high  seas,  that  the  seaboard  of  both  should  be  circled 
with  fire  and  sword — perhaps  still  more  deplorable  to  the 
country  which  inspires  such  passionate  attachment,  and  is 
the  cause  of  such  determined  hate.  Each  could  and 
would  inflict  unspeakable  injury  on  the  other ;  but  wTere  a 
balance  of  probable  evil  to  be  struck,  it  would  be,  manifestly 
must  be,  on  the  side  of  England.  This  may  excite  the 
incredulity  or  the  indignation  of  the  English  reader ;  but 
there  are  geographical  reasons  why  it  should  be  so.  As¬ 
suming  the  over-sanguine  view  of  the  case,  and  supposing 
that  the  title  ‘  United  Kingdom  ’  fittingly  represented  the 
relations  which,  in  case  of  war  with  America,  would 
exist  between  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  what,  after  all, 
is  this  United  Kingdom?  A  cluster  of  islands,  inhabited, 
no  doubt,  by  a  brave,  hardy,  high-spirited,  energetic, 
adventurous  people,  whose  greatness  rests  mainly  on  their 
industry,  their  enterprise,  and  their  skill  in  the  arts  of 
peace, — but  not  so  large  in  extent  as  an  average  State 
of  the  Union,  which  is  now  typified  by  the  six-and-thirty 
stars  on  the  banner  of  the  Republic.  These  islands  are 
densely  populated;  but  it  may  be  questioned  if  the  same 
population,  which  is  a  source  of  wealth  in  peace,  when 
producing  at  profit  for  the  consumption  of  the  world, 
would  be  equally  a  source  of  wealth  in  the  time  of  war, 
when  hostile  cruisers  infested  the  seas,  and  made  the 
path  of  commerce  one  of  multiplied  risk.  England  cannot 
feed  herself,  though  her  fields  are  fruitful,  and  she  carries 
the  science  of  agriculture  to  a  more  successful  application 
than  any  country  of  Europe  :  she  must  depend  on  foreign 
sources  for  her  supplies — at  least,  to  supplement  her  own 


WHY  MOST  INJURIOUS  TO  ENGLAND. 


fi  19 


production.  Check  and  embarrass,  not  to  say  cut  off,  her 
necessary  supply  from  other  countries,  and  up  goes  the 
price  of  the  poor  man’s  loaf  to  a  famine  standard !  Even 
high  wages  would  scarcely  meet  the  enhanced  price  of 
human  food  consequent  upon  a  conflict  with  a  maritime 
nation.  But  where  would  the  high  wages  come  from,  and 
by  whom  would  they  be  received?  Free  and  unfettered 
commerce,  which  means  a  safe  and  unrestricted  highway, 
by  land  or  by  sea,  is  the  very  life  of  trade ;  but  only 
render  it  necessary  for  the  timid  merchantman  to  cluster 
round  the  armed  vessel,  and  seek  the  protection  of  her 
guns,  and  adieu  to  free  and  unfettered  commerce,  for  a  safe 
and  uninterrupted  highway  no  longer  exists.  Why  pro¬ 
duce  calicoes,  and  linens,  and  woollens,  and  laces,  and 
silks,  and  hardware,  if  you  cannot  depend  on  their  reach¬ 
ing  your  customers  in  safety? — and  if  production  ceases 
to  be  profitable,  what  is  to  become  of  the  tens  of  thou¬ 
sands,  the  myriads,  who  now  labour  in  cheerfulness,  be¬ 
cause  their  country  enjoys  the  priceless  blessings  of  peace  ? 
The  population  of  Lancashire  may  have  had  some  idea — a 
faint  idea  at  best — of  the  horrors  of  a  universal  paralysis 
of  trade  ;  a  faint  idea,  because  the  country,  being  generally 
prosperous,  notwithstanding  the  Cotton  Famine  caused  by 
the  Civil  War  in  America,  was  able  to  come,  and  did 
promptly  come,  to  their  rescue.  But  were  English  custom¬ 
ers  to  be  reached  only  by  blockade-runners,  or  by  the  avoid¬ 
ance  of  hostile  cruisers  and  daring  privateers,  or  under  the 
protection  of  iron-clads  and  monitors,  then  would  bitter 
poverty  and  hard  privation  be  brought  to  the  homes  of 
the  very  workers  who,  being  fully  employed  in  18G2  and 
1863,  were  able  to  extend  the  hand  of  fraternal  assistance 
to  the  500,000  sufferers  from  the  failure  of  a  single  branch 
of  our  multiform  national  industry.  Dear  food,  and  scant 
wages ! — humanly  speaking,  the  most  terrible  calamities 
that  can  befall  the  working-man,  his  family,  and  his 
home.  Those  who  forged  cannon,  manufactured  rifles, 


020 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


and  supplied  munitions  of  war,  would  flourish ;  but,  with 
war  taxation,  and  war  prices,  and  war  food,  and  war  panic, 
of  what  value  would  be  our  public  securities?  Then, 
suppose  the  war  at  an  end,  providentially  in  a  year, 
probably  in  two,  how  many  hundred  millions  would  it 
have  added  to  the  National  Debt,  which  now  devours  more 
than  one-third  of  the  entire  revenue  of  the  State  ? 

And  what  Irishman  can  think,  than  without  a  shudder 
of  horror,  of  what  his  country  would  have  to  go  through 
during  that  tremendous  crisis !  The  pent-up  passions  of 
centuries  let  loose  in  one  wild  frenzied  outburst — ven¬ 
geance,  long  brooded  over,  stimulated  rather  than  quenched 
in  blood — the  hills,  and  plains,  and  valleys  of  that  hapless 
land  the  theatre  of  a  desperate  war,  the  battle-field  not 
alone  of  contending  armies,  but  of  conflicting  races !  It 
requires  the  insensibility  of  the  Stoic  to  contemplate  the 
multiplied  and  complicated  horrors  which  a  war  with 
America  would  entail  on  Ireland.  Turning  our  eyes  from 
the  awful  spectacle  which  the  imagination  too  readily 
conjures  up,  let  us  rather  glance  across  the  ocean,  and 
see  why  the  balance  would,  of  necessity,  be  in  favour  of 
the  Great  Republic. 

An  enemy  might  cripple  the  commerce  of  the  United 
States,  might  possibly  be  able  to  blockade  a  few  of  her 
harbours,  might  probably  succeed  in  burning  a  dockyard, 
.or  setting  a  portion  of  a  maritime  city  in  a  blaze;  though 
the  bombardment  of  Charleston  does  not  offer  a  very  hope¬ 
ful  precedent  to  a  foreign  foe.  But  what  impression  could 
any  English  army — any  possible  army  that  England,  not 
to  say  could  spare,  but  could  raise — make  upon  the  United 
States  ?  Curran’s  image  of  the  child  vainly  trying  to 
grasp  the  globe  with  its  tiny  hand,  affords  a  not  inapt  idea 
of  the  practical  absurdity  of  an  armed  invasion  of  the 
gigantic  territory  of  the  Union  by  even  the  mightiest  of 
the  military  powers  of  Europe ;  and  England  is  not  that 
No  foreign  nation  could  reach  the  heart  of  America.  The 


WHY  LESS  INJURIOUS  TO  AMERICA. 


C21 


heart  of  America  exists  in  lier  natural  resources,  in  her 
power  to  feed  herself — to  sustain  her  people  without  the 
aid  of  foreign  assistance  ;  and  her  plains,  rich  with  golden 
grain,  lie  far  away  from  the  reach  of  charging  squadrons 
and  the  sound  of  hostile  cannon.  War  with  a  European 
Power  would  serve  rather  than  injure  the  manufacturing 
industry  of  the  United  States,  employ  rather  than  dis¬ 
employ  her  people.  Perhaps  the  evil  is,  that  America 
continues,  even  yet,  to  be  too  much  dependent  on  the 
manufacturing  industry  of  Europe  for  articles  of  con¬ 
venience  and  utility,  as  well  as  luxury ;  and  whatever 
would  throw  her  more  on  her  own  resources,  natural  and 
created,  would,  in  the  long  run,  be  for  her  benefit.  With 
her  mountains  of  iron,  and  her  enormous  regions  of  coal, 
with  her  varied  climate,  and  her  infinite  natural  produc¬ 
tions,  and  the  skill,  ingenuity,  knowledge,  and  inventive 
power  of  a  population  trained  in  all  the  arts  of  civilisation, 
and  ministering  to  her  wants — she  can  indeed  contemplate 
without  dismay  the  chances  of  a  war  waged  against  her  by 
any  foreign  nation,  however  great,  mighty,  or  formidable 
that  nation  may  be.  Nor  would  a  foreign  war,  great 
calamity  as,  under  the  most  favourable  circumstances,  it 
would  be,  be  altogether  unpopular  with  numbers  of  the 
American  people,  including  even  the  patriotic  and  the 
thoughtful ;  inasmuch  as  it  would  most  effectually  solve 
the  Southern  difficulty,  settle  in  a  moment  the  question 
of  reconstruction  on  the  broad  basis  of  mutual  amity  and 
reconciliation,  and  unite  under  the  one  banner  those  who 
for  four  long  years  waged  a  bitter  and  relentless  war,  man 
against  man,  and  State  against  State.  He  must  form  a 
strange  notion  of  the  relative  condition  of  the  two  coun¬ 
tries,  who  does  not  see  that,  however  disastrous^  Ireland 
might  and  would  be  affected  by  a  war  between  America  and 
England,  the  chances  would  be  against  England  and  in 
favour  of  America — or,  in  other  words,  that  England  would 
suffer  more  and  America  less  from  such  a  contingency. 


622 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


Assuming’,  then,  that  the  feeling  of  the  Irish  in  America 
against  England  may  possibly  or  probably,  sooner  or  later, 
lead  to  an  embroilment,  a  rupture,  war— how  is  England 
to  reach,  influence,  or  counteract  these  her  eager,  watch¬ 
ful,  vengeful  enemies  ?  But  through  one  channel — Ireland. 
The  Irish  in  America  are  entirely  beyond  the  reach  of 
England  ;  she  can  in  no  possible  way  control  or  check  the 
manifestation  of  their  feelings  towards  her.  Nor  indeed 
is  it  within  the  power  of  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  to  do  so,  even  were  it  so  inclined — which  is  more 
than  doubtful.  By  laws  and  police — physical  power,  if 
you  will — you  may  suppress  a  visible  and  tangible  organ¬ 
isation  ;  but  neither  by  penalty  nor  punishment,  prose¬ 
cution  nor  persecution,  can  you  reach  a  sentiment.  It  is 
impervious  to  lead  or  steel,  and  bonds  cannot  bind  it.  You 
must  encounter  it  with  a  power  similar  to  its  own,  equally 
strong,  and  equally  unassailable  by  mere  material  force. 
And  the  profound  belief,  which  lies  at  the  very  root  of  this 
hostility,  and  gives  life  to  every  anti-British  organisation — 
that  Ireland  is  oppressed  and  impoverished  by  England  ; 
that  England  hates  the  Irish  race,  and  would  exterminate 
them,  were  it  in  her  power, — this  profound  belief  can  only 
be  conquered  by  the  conviction  of  the  justice  and  wisdom 
of  England,  as  exhibited  not  only  in  her  government  and 
in  her  legislation,  but  in  the  prosperity  and  contentment 
of  Ireland.  Let  Ireland  be  dealt  with  in  the  same  spirit, 
liberal  and  confiding,  with  which  England  has  dealt 
with  her  colonies — respecting  the  rights  of  conscience 
through  the  most  complete  religious  equality,  and  the 
utmost  freedom  of  education.  Let  her  legislate  for  a 
country  almost  wholly  agricultural,  and  which,  from  many 
causes,  natural  as  well  as  the  growth  of  circumstances, 
stands  in  relation  to  other  portions  of  the  United  Kingdom 
in  an  entirely  exceptional  position,  in  someivhat  the  same 
spirit  which  has  characterised  her  policy  in  reference  to  the 
tenure  of  land  in  Lower  Canada,  where  she  sanctioned 


THE  ONLY  POSSIBLE  REMEDY. 


623 


the  abolition  of  the  Seignorial  Rights  ;  in  Prince  Edward’s 
Island,  where,  while  suppressing  an  illegal  association,  the 
representative  of  the  British  Crown  proclaimed  the  wisdom 
of  converting  tenure  by  lease  into  tenure  by  freehold,  and 
the  determination  of  the  local  government  to  effect  that 
change  by  the  purchase  of  large  estates,  principally 
belonging  to  absentees,  and  selling  them  at  low  terms  to 
existing  occupiers  and  new  settlers  ;  or  in  India,  by  afford¬ 
ing  security  of  tenure — that  most  potent  of  all  incentives 
to  human  industry — to  a  race  who  had  previously  been 
trampled  upon  and  oppressed.  Let  a  generous,  kindly,  and 
sympathetic  spirit  breathe  in  the  language  of  her  statesmen 
and  her  orators,  and  mark  the  writings  of  her  journalists. 
Let  there  be  an  end,  not  to  say  of  abuse  or  denunciation, 
but  of  that  tone  of  offensive  superiority  and  still 
more  offensive  toleration  and  condescension  which  too 
often  characterises  British  references  to  Ireland  and 
things  Irish.  Let  it  be  the  honest,  earnest  desire  of  the 
English  people  to  lift  Ireland  up  to  their  own  level  of 
prosperity  and  contentment  ;  and  obliterate,  by  generous 
consideration  for  the  wants  of  her  people,  the  bitter 
memories  and  lurking  hate  which  the  wrongs  of  centuries 
have  left  in  the  Irish  heart,  and  which  the  apathy  or 
neglect  of  recent  times  has  taken  little  trouble  to  recog¬ 
nise.  Let  statesmen  and  party-leaders  regard  this  ever 
present  and  still  unsettled  ‘  Irish  Question  ’  as  one  of  the 
gravest  and  most  solemn  that  could  engage  the  attention 
and  employ  the  energies  of  a  wise  and  patriotic  Govern¬ 
ment  and  Parliament.  To  a  grander  task  or  a  more 
exalted  duty  than  the  solution  of  this  difficulty — the  re¬ 
moval  of  that  great  scandal  which  the  state  of  Ireland, 
political  and  material,  presents  to  the  civilised  world — - 
neither  minister  nor  representative  could  devote  his  brain 
and  heart.  And  to  a  New  Parliament,  yet  to  spring,  as  it 
were,  from  the  generous  impulses  of  an  enfranchised  nation, 
may  we  hope  for  an  energy  and  an  enthusiasm  equal  to  an 


624 


THE  IRISH  IN  AMERICA. 


emergency,  whose  importance  no  language  can  fully  repre¬ 
sent  much  less  exaggerate.  How  this  is  to  be  clone, — 
whether  by  and  through  the  action  of  the  Imperial  Legis¬ 
lature,  or  by  entrusting  to  Ireland  a  certain  local  power, 
by  which  she  might  relieve  the  Parliament  of  England  of 
serious  inconvenience  and  usefully  manage  much  of  her 
affairs, — it  is  for  the  wisdom  of  statesmen,  inspired  by  a 
noble  sense  of  duty,  to  determine.  But  faltering,  and 
hesitation,  and  delay  will  not  answer  ;  neither  will  the  old 
system  of  wilful  blindness  and  wanton  self-delusion  suffice 
in  the  face  of  actual  and  increasing  danger.  The  result,  if 
successful,  would  be  worth  any  effort  or  any  trouble  ;  for 
once  allow  the  Irish  in  America  to  believe  that  a  brighter 
day  has  dawned  for  their  brethren  in  the  old  country,  and 
that  it  is  for  their  advantage  rather  to  be  linked  in  affection 
as  in  interest  with  Great  Britain,  than,  by  violent  effort 
and  tremendous  sacrifices,  desperately  seek  to  effect  a 
separation  of  the  lesser  from  the  greater  country  ;  and  the 
feeling  of  bitter,  rancorous,  vengeful  hate  may  gradually 
soften  and  die  out,  and  eventually  fade  into  oblivion  like 
a  dream  of  the  past.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  let  con¬ 
tinued  wails  of  distress  waft  their  mournful  accents  across 
the  ocean,  stirring  to  its  depths  the  heart  of  a  passionate 
and  impulsive  race  ;  and  though  Fenian  leaders  may  quar¬ 
rel  or  betray,  and  Fenian  organisations  may  wither  or 
collapse,  there  must  be  perpetual  danger  to  the  peace,  the 
honour,  if  not  the  safety  of  England,  from  a  power  which 
it  is  impossible  to  ignore,  and  madness  to  despise, — 


The  Irish  in  America. 


APPENDIX, 


SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

Bishop  Lynch's  Letter. 

Charleston,  S.  C.,  Feb.  23,  1867. 

Dear  Sir, 

In  compliance  with  my  promise.  I  undertake  to  give  you  a  brief 
statement  of  what  an  emigrant  may  look  for  who  comes  to  the 
Southern  States,  and  especially  to  South  Carolina,  with  the  intention 
of  engaging  in  agriculture. 

This  State  may  be  divided  into  several  belts,  parallel  to  the  sea- 
coast.,  each  one  of  which  has  its  peculiarities.  The  first  belt,  next  to 
the  ocean,  is  that  of  the  Sea  Islands,  producing  the  finest  quality  of 
cotton,  and,  of  course,  vegetables  in  abundance.  In  this  belt  the  heat 
is  great.  Frost  in  winter  is  almost  unknown.  Except  immediately 
on  the  sea-coast,  a  white  man  finds  himself  liable  to  fever.  Lands 
can  be  purchased  in  many  places  at  two  pounds  sterling  an  acre ; 
perhaps  for  less. 

A  second  belt  next  to  this  one,  is  the  rice-field  belt.  It  is  inter¬ 
sected  by  a  large  number  of  streams,  whose  waters,  though  fresh,  feel 
the  influence  of  the  tides,  and  rise  high  enough  to  overflow  vast 
bodies  of  low  lands  on  either  side.  These  lands  are  devoted  to  the 
culture  of  rice,  for  which  much  irrigation  is  required.  Hence,  on  the 
whole,  this  belt  is  very  unhealthy,  being  subject  to  malarial  fevers. 

Both  of  those  belts  are,  and  will,  I  think,  for  a  long  time,  be 
chiefly  occupied  by  negroes,  who  are  exempt  from  the  fevers  to  which 
the  white  man  is  liable. 

A  third  belt,  broader  than  both  of  the  preceding  ones,  stretches  across 
the  State.  The  soil  is  good,  but  the  ground  lies  level,  and  is  not 
drained.  Hence,  at  times,  the  crop  is  lost  by  too  much  water,  at  other 
times  withers  for  want  of  rain ;  and  on  the  whole,  the  region  is 
sickly.  Were  it  thoroughly  and  systematically  drained,  which,  perhaps, 

'27 


C26 


APPENDIX. 


could  only  be  done  under  government  auspices,  it  would  be  the 
garden  of  the  South. 

Here  lands  may  be  readily  bought  for  from  four  to  ten  shillings  an 
acre. 

Another  belt  follows,  of  equal  width.  The  land  is  more  rolling, 
the  soil  equally  sandy,  and  with  less  lime.  It  is  considered  poor.  P»ut 
when  cultivated  with  ordinary  skill,  and  manures  are  freely  used,  it 
will  produce  abundant  crops  of  cotton,  of  Indian  corn,  of  potatoes, 
and  of  all  root  crops  and  vegetables.  It  is  eminently  healthy,  and  I 
have  seen  cases  where  intelligent  and  skilful  labour  reaped  a  crop  of 
cotton  worth  ten  pounds  sterling  per  acre. 

A  single  man  may  cultivate  four  or  five  acres  in  cotton  ;  three  or 
four  in  Indian  corn,  and  half  an  acre  for  a  kitchen  garden.  The 
Americans  know  little  of  the  use  of  manures,  and  much  prefer  culti¬ 
vating  lands  that  need  none,  until  they  become  worn  out,  when  they 
are  left  to  grow  up  again  in  a  forest ;  and  other  fresh  lands  are  cleared 
and  cultivated. 

The  lands  of  this  fourth  belt  vary  somewhat  in  character,  in 
different  parts  of  the  State,  and  vary  in  prices.  But  much  of  it  can 
be  bought  at  from  two  to  ten  shillings  per  acre. 

A  fifth  belt  comprises  lands  that  are  more  hilly  and  rolling  than 
the  preceding,  and  are  nearly  all  clay  lands.  They  were  occupied  by 
a  farming  population  many  years  ago,  and  having  been  long  cultivated 
with  little  or  no  manure,  and  often  in  a  very  rude  manner,  they  have 
lost  something  of  their  original  fertility.  Still  the  settlers  look  on 
them  as  more  productive  than  the  lands  I  have  last  spoken  of ;  and 
doubtless  they  are  so  in  their  hands.  There  are  some  portions  of 
them  very  fertile  ;  and  these,  of  course,  are  held  at  high  prices.  But 
at  present,  lands  in  this  belt  may  be.  bought  at  from  fifteen  to  twenty- 
five  shillings  an  acre. 

Beyond  this  belt,  and  in  the  north-west  part  of  the  State,  comes 
the  mountainous  district ;  which,  in  soil,  is  much  like  mountainous 
districts  of  any  other  country.  Meadows  and  table  lands  are  very 
rich,  yielding  excellent  crops  of  Indian  corn,  of  wheat,  and  other 
cereals ;  and  the  whole  country  is  admirably  adapted  for  grazing.  I 
am  not  able  to  say  what  is  the  average  price  of  land  in  this  belt. 
Immigrants  would,  I  think,  do  better  settling  on  the  fourth  or  fifth 
belts,  where  land  can  easily  be  procured  at  the  prices  indicated,  payable 
on  time,  after  a  reasonable  credit ;  and  in  situations  perfectly  healthy, 
and  where  there  is  always  a  demand  for  agricultural  labourers,  and  a 
ready  access  to  market  for  the  sale  of  the  crop. 

An  immigrant  coming  to  this  State  finds  an  entirely  different 
climate  from  that  which  he  has  left.  In  either  of  the  three  fust 


APPENDIX. 


G27 


belts  he  will  be  liable,  unless  extremely  careful  not  to  expose  himself, 
to  attacks  of  fever  in  autumn;  though,  even  in  these  belts,  some  com¬ 
paratively  elevated  spots  are  found  which  are  perfectly  healthy. 

In  the  fourth  belt  there  are  places  near  swamps  which  are  likewise 
unhealthy  ;  and  it  is  to  the  malaria  arising  from  swamps,  and  not  to 
the  heat  of  the  season,  that  the  fevers  are  to  be  attributed.  The 
greater  portion  of  the  State  is  quite  healthy  ;  and  the  heat  is  by  no 
means  so  great  as  to  prevent  men  labouring  even  twice  as  long  as 
their  crops  require.  In  point  of  fact,  the  crop  is  secure  by  the  labour 
done  during  our  mild  winters,  and  in  spring  before  the  heats  of 
summer  set  in ;  and  the  ordinary  crops,  if  well  worked  in  time, 
require  only  a  slight  attention  after  the  middle  of  June.  I  have  no 
doubt  that  a  farmer  having  one  or  two  sons  to  aid  him,  and  able  to 
command  even  a  few  pounds  to  start  with,  would,  in  a  few  years,  find 
himself  worth  hundreds  of  pounds. 

Steps  are  being  taken  to  invite  immigrants  to  the  South,  and  to 
present  to  them  at  the  North  and  in  Ireland  the  special  advantages  of 
the  South.  Now  that  negro  slavery  has  been  abolished,  the  negroes 
are  gradually  retiring  to  the  sea-coast.  The  lands  in  the  interior 
and  upper  belts,  which  I  have  recommended,  are  being  thrown  into 
market,  and  will  be  occupied  by  a  white  population.  It  is  desirable 
that  the  families  who  emigrate  should  settle  in  groups  near  each 
other.  By  so  doing,  they  will  secure  to  themselves  a  social  com¬ 
panionship  which  they  could  scarcely  have  with  the  inhabitants  of 
the  country  until  several  years’  acquaintance.  They  could  have  a 
church  and  priest  of  their  own,  and  Catholic  schools  for  their  chil¬ 
dren. 

This  invitation  to  emigrants  from  Ireland  is  but  a  repetition  of 
what  was  done  over  a  hundred  years  ago,  when  there  was  a  large 
immigration  of  Irish  Protestant  farmers  to  South  Carolina;  and  with 
them  must  have  come  many  Catholics,  who,  in  those  days,  when 
there  was  neither  priest  nor  Catholicity  in  the  country,  soon  lost  the 
Faith.  This  Irish  immigration  almost  took  possession  of  the  State. 
Irish  family  names  abound  in  every  rank  and  condition  in  life  ;  and 
there  are  few  men,  natives  of  the  State,  in  whose  veins  there  does  not 
run  more  or  less  of  Irish  blood. 

South  Carolina  is,  probably,  the  most  Irish  of  any  of  the  States  of 
the  Union. 

While  its  inhabitants  have  always  had  the  impetuous  character  of 
the  Irish  race,  nowhere  has  there  been  a  more  earnest  sympathy  for 
the  struggles  of  Irishmen  at  home;  nowhere  will  the  Irish  immi 
grant  be  received  wiili  greater  welcome,  or  be  more  generously  sup¬ 
ported  in  all  his  rights;  and  I  do  not  know  any  part  of  the  country 


G28 


APPENDIX. 

where  industry  and  sobriety  would  ensure  to  the  immigrant  who  en¬ 
gages  in  agriculture  an  ample  competence  for  himself  and  family 
within  a  briefer  number  of  years. 

I  believe  that  all  these  points  will  be  presented  with  due  details  to 
those  who  wish  to  leave  Ireland  to  better  their  fortunes  in  America, 
by  a  special  agent  who  may  be  sent  out ;  and  also  that  proper  arrange 

e 

ments  will  likewise  be  provided  for  the  passage  of  those  who  wish  to 
emigrate  from  Ireland  direct  to  South  Carolina. 

So  far  as  the  ministrations  of  religion  to  those  who  come  are  con¬ 
cerned,  I  have  hopes  that  if  they  settle  as  I  indicated,  in  groups,  they 
will  be  fully  provided  for. 

I  have  the  honour  to  be,  my  dear  Sir,  with  great  respect, 

Your  obedient,  humble  servant, 

P.  N.  LYNCH,  D.  D., 

Bishop  of  Charleston. 

J.  F.  Maguire,  Esq.,  M.  P. 

Cork,  Ireland. 


THE  LAND. 

Information  for  Emigrants. 

Department  of  the  Interior  General  Land  Office, 

Washington,  D.  C.  December  24,  18GG. 

Sir. — I  have  the  honour  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  letter 
o  the  1 1th  instant,  enclosing  one  of  24th  November  (ultimo)  addressed 
to  you  by  G.  M.  Allender,  of  the  Farmer’s  Club,  Salisbury  Square, 
London. 

Your  correspondent  states,  that  a  class  of  persons  in  England,  con¬ 
sisting  of  small  farmers,  or  sons  of  farmers,  with  small  capital,  desire 
to  come  to  America,  but  are  deterred  for  want  of  information  ;  that  a 
feeling  prevails  among  this  class,  that  all  the  best  lands  and  positions 
are  secured  by  speculators,  and  that  it  is  only  poor  lands,  badly  situated, 
that  can  be  obtained  at  the  government  price  of  $1.25  per  acre — the 
following  questions  in  this  connection  being  presented  : — 

1st.  In  what  States  can  good  land,  well  situated,  still  be  obtained  at 
the  price  of  $1.25  per  acre? 

1  send  herewith  a  map,  showing  what  are  called  the  ‘Public  Land 
States,’  and  territories  of  the  United  States,  and  in  reply  to  this 
question,  state,  that  such  lands  may  be  had  east  of  the  Mississippi 
river,  in  the  upper  and  lower  peninsula  of  Michigan,  in  Wisconsin,  in 


APPENDIX. 


629 


the  great  States  west  of  the  Mississippi,  of  Minnesota,  Iowa,  Missouri, 
Kansas,  and  in  Nebraska,  and  that  on  the  Pacific  slope,  extensive 
bodies  of  public  lands  have  been  surveyed  and  are  open  to  settlement 
in  the  States  of  California,  Oregon,  and  in  the  territory  of  Washington. 
TL.e  great  mineral  bearing  State  Nevada,  lying  east  of  and  contiguous 
to  California,  is  open  to  actual  settlement,  and  there  the  public  sur¬ 
veys  are  in  progress. 

Returning  east  of  the  Mississippi,  the  whole  public  land  surface 
there  will  be  found  surveyed  and  subdivided  in  tracts  as  small  as 
forty  acres  each,  which  in  eighty-acre  tracts  can  be  taken  under  the 
Homestead  Law,  in  the  States  of  Florida,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Loui¬ 
siana,  and  Arkansas. 

Then  the  territories  of  Dakota,  Colorado,  New  Mexico,  and  Arizona, 
are  open  to  settlement. 

The  territory  of  Idaho  has  just  been  organised  into  a  land  district, 
whilst  Utah  and  Montana  are  yet  to  be  subjected  to  that  organi¬ 
sation. 

2nd.  Must  lands  so  obtained  be  paid  for  immediately  ? 

In  order  that  lands  maybe  placed  in  the  class  of  those  ‘  subject  to 
sale  at  private  entry,'1  they  must  have  been  first  offered  at  public 
auction,  and  thereafter,  if  not  disposed  of  at  public  sale,  are  liable  at 
the  time  of  application  to  be  paid  for,  either  in  cash,  or  with  military 
land  scrip,  or  bounty  land  warrants  at  the  rate  of  $1.25  per  acre,  for 
the  number  of  acres  represented  on  the  face  of  a  warrant  or  scrip. 

The  minimum  price  of  offered  lands  is  $1.25  per  acre,  unless  that 
minimum  shall  have  been  doubled  by  reason  of  the  construction  of 
some  public  work,  as  an  internal  improvement  such  as  railroads,  and 
which  materially  increases  the  value  of  the  lands  in  its  vicinity  ;  but 
even  where  there  are  United  States  reserved  or  S2.50  per*  acre  sections, 
homestead  entries,  to  the  extent  of  eighty  acres  each,  may  be  made  by 
citizens  or  those  who  have  declared  their  intentions  to  become  such. 

3rd.  Would  a  certain  adjoining  district  be  reserved,  say  for  a  year 
or  two,  so  that  there  might  be  time  to  call  the  attention  of  persons 
here  to  that  special  district? 

It  is  not  the  policy  of  the  government  to  withdraw  lands  once 
offered  at  public  sale  from  entry,  unless  to  subserve  some  important 
public  interest,  such  as  the  building  of  lines  of  railroads,  to  connect 
centres  of  trade,  or  some  other  interest  of  like  importance;  nor  indeed 
is  it  necessary  to  do  so,  as  tracts  varying  from  forty  to  one  hundred 
and  sixty  acres,  or  even  larger  size,  can  be  had  in  some  of  the  land 
States  or  territories  where  the  surveys  have  been  extended,  and  offices 
are  open  for  the  sale  of  such  lands. 

In  regard  to  the  apprehension  that  all  the  best  lands  and  positions 


630 


APPENDIX. 


bad  already  been  disposed  of,  it  is  proper  to  state  that  in  the  older 
settled  land  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois,  the  public  iands. 
generally,  have  been  disposed  of  to  actual  settlers;  but  in  other  States 
hereinbefore  mentioned,  tracts  to  an  immense  extent  of  good  land 
well  situated  may  be  obtained.  In  the  States  of  Minnesota,  Iowa, 
Wisconsin,  Missouri,  and  Kansas,  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi 
river,  in  the  State  of  Michigan,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  great  lakes,  in 
California  and  Oregon  on  the  Pacific,  and  in  the  territories  of  Wash¬ 
ing  on  and  Nebraska  large  bodies  of  good  land ,  both 'prairie  and  timber , 
are  now  subject  to  sale  at  private  entry  at  $1.25  per  acre ;  and  in  the 
five  first-mentioned  States,  and  in  Nebraska,  the  soil  and  climate  are 
held  to  be  admirably  adapted  to  the  raising  of  such  stock  as  is  alluded 
to  by  your  correspondent. 

There  are  also  good  lands  well  situated  in  Arkansas,  Mississippi, 
Alabama,  Louisiana,  and  Florida ;  but  in  those  States,  the  public  lands 
are  only  subject  to  entry  under  the  Homestead  Act,  approved  June  21, 
1866. 

I  am,  with  great  respect, 

Your  Obedient  Servant, 

(Signed)  JOS.  S.  WILSON, 

Commissioner 

Hon.  R.  S.  Chilton, 

Commissioner  of  Immigration, 

Washington,  D.  C. 


Sir. 


Department  of  the  Interior  General  Land  Office, 
September  25,  18(57. 


Agreeably  to  the  request  in  your  letter  of  the  17th,  I  enclose 
herewith  a  copy  of  the  Homestead  Law.  I  also  send  you  a  list  of  the 
local  land  offices  in  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  Iowa,  Missouri, 
Kansas,  and  Nebraska,  and  on  application  to  either  of  these  offices, 
you  will  receive  all  needed  information  relative  to  the  entry  of  any 
lands  subject  to  entry,  under  the  Homestead  Law,  and  situated  in  the 
district  where  the  land  office  to  which  you  apply  is  located. 

Very  respectfully, 


JOS.  SMESIN, 
Commissioner. 


MICHIGAN. 

Detroit,  East  Saginaw,  Ionia,  Marquette,  Traverse  City. 


APPENDIX. 


631 


WISCONSIN. 

Menaslia,  Falls  of  St.  Croix,  Stevens’  Point,  La  Crosse,  Bayfield, 
Eau  Claire. 

MINNESOTA. 

Taylor’s  Falls,  St.  Cloud,  Winnebago  City,  St.  Peter,  Greenleaf, 
Du  Luth. 

IOWA. 

Fort  Des  Moines,  Council  Bluffs,  Fort  Dodge,  Sioux  City. 

MISSOURI. 

Boonville,  Ironton,  Springfield. 

KANSAS. 

Topeka,  Junction  City.  Humboldt. 

ARKANSAS. 

Little  Rock,  Washington,  Clarksville. 

NEBRASKA  T. 

Omaha  City,  Brownsville,  Nebraska  City,  Dakota  City. 

An  Act  to  secure  Homesteads  to  Actual  Settlers  on  the  Public 

Domain. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  any  person  who 
is  the  head  of  a  family,  or  who  has  arrived  at  the  age  of  twenty-one 
years,  and  is  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  or  who  shall  have  filed 
his  declaration  of  intention  to  become  such,  as  required  by  the  natura¬ 
lization  laws  of  the  United  States,  and  who  has  never  borne  arms 
against  the  United  States  Government  or  given  aid  and  comfort  to  its 
enemies,  shall,  from  and  after  the  first  January,  eighteen  hundred  and 
sixty-three,  be  entitled  to  enter  one  quarter  section  or  a  less  quantity  of 
unappropriated  public  lands,  upon  which  said  person  may  have  filed  a 
pre-emption  claim,  or  which  may,  at  the  time  the  application  is  made, 
be  subject  to  pre-emption  at  one  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents,  or  less, 
per  acre ;  or  eighty  acres  or  less  of  such  unappropriated  lands,  at  two 
dollars  and  fifty  cents  per  acre,  to  be  located  in  a  body,  in  conformity 
to  the  legal  subdivisions  of  the  public  lands,  and  after  the  same  shall 
have  been  surveyed  :  Provided,  That  any  person  owning  and  residing 
on  land  may,  under  the  provisions  of  this  act,  enter  other  land  lying 
contiguous  to  his  or  her  said  land,  which  shall  not,  with  the  land  so 
already  owned  and  occupied,  exceed  in  the  aggregate  one  hundred 
and  sixty  acres. 


C32 


APPENDIX. 


Sec.  2.  And  be  it  farther  enacted,  That  the  person  applying  for  tho 
benefit  of  this  act  shall,  upon  application  to  the  register  of  the  land 
office  in  which  he  or  she  is  about  to  make  such  entry,  make  affidavit 
before  the  said  register  or  receiver  that  he  or  she  is  the  head  of  a 
family,  or  is  twenty-one  or  more  years  of  age,  or  shall  have  performed 
service  in  the  army  or  navy  of  the  United  States,  and  that  he  has 
never  borne  arms  against  the  Government  of  the  United  States  or 
given  aid  and  comfort  to  its  enemies,  and  that  such  application  is  made 
for  his  or  her  exclusive  use  and  benefit,  and  that  said  entry  is  made 
for  the  purpose  of  actual  settlement  and  cultivation,  and  not,  either 
directly  or  indirectly,  for  the  use  or  benefit  of  any  other  persons  or 
persons  whomsoever  5  and  upon  filing  the  said  affidavit  with  the  register 
nr  receiver,  and  on  payment  of  ten  dollars,  he  or  she  shall  thereupon  be 
permitted  to  enter  the  quantity  of  land  specified  :  Provided,  however , 
That  no  certificate  shall  be  given  or  patent  issued  therefor  until  the 
expiration  of  five  years  from  the  date  of  such  entry ;  and  if,  at  the 
expiration  of  such  time,  or  at  any  other  time  within  two  years  there¬ 
after,  the  person  make  such  entry — or  if  he  be  dead,  his  widow  ;  or 
in  case  of  her  death,  his  heirs  or  devisee;  or  in  case  of  a  widow- 
making  such  entry,  her  heirs  or  devisee,  in  case  of  her  death — shall 
prove  by  two  credible  witnesses  that  he,  she,  or  they  have  resided  upon 
or  cultivated  the  same  for  the  term  of  five  years  immediately  succeed¬ 
ing  the  time  of  filing  the  affidavit  aforesaid,  and  shall  make  affidavit 
that  no  part  of  said  land  has  been  alienated,  and  that  he  has  borne 
true  allegiance  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States;  then,  in  such 
case,  he,  she,  or  they,  if  at  any  time  a  citizen  of  the  United  States, 
shall  be  entitled  to  a  patent,  as  in  other  cases  provided  for  by  law  : 
And  provided,  further,  That  in  case  of  the  death  of  both  father  and 
mother,  leaving  an  infant  child,  or  children  under  twenty-one  years 
of  age,  the  right  and  fee  shall  ensure  to  the  benefit  of  said  infant 
child  or  children  ;  and  the  executor,  administrator  or  guardian  may, 
at  any  time  within  two  years  after  the  death  of  the  surviving  parent, 
and  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  the  State  in  which  such  children 
for  the  time  being  have  their  domicil,  sell  said  land  for  the  benefit 
of  said  infants,  but  for  no  other  purpose;  and  the  purchaser  shall 
acquire-  the  absolute  title  by  the  purchase,  and  be  entitled  to  a  patent 
from  the  United  States,  on  payment  of  the  office  fees  and  sum  of 
money  herein  specified. 

Sec.  3.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  the  register  of  the  land  office 
shall  note  all  such  applications  on  the  tract  books  and  plats  of  his 
office,  and  keep  a  register  of  all  such  entries,  and  make  return  thereof 
to  the  General  Land  Office,  together  with  the  proof  upon  which  they 
have  been  founded. 


APPENDIX. 


G33 


Sec.  4.  And  be  it  further  enacted ,  That  no  lands  acquired  under  the 
provisions  of  this  act  shall  in  any  event  become  liable  to  the  satis¬ 
faction  of  any  debt  or  debts  contracted  prior  to  the  issuing  of  the 
patent  therefor. 

Sec.  5.  And  be  it  further  enacted ,  That  if  at  any  time  after  the 
filing  of  the  affidavit,  as  required  in  the  second  section  of  this  act, 
and  before  the  expiration  of  the  five  years  aforesaid,  it  shall  be  proven, 
after  due  notice  to  the  settler,  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  register  of  the 
land  office,  that  the  person  having  filed  such  affidavit  shall  have 
actually  changed  his  or  her  residence,  or  abandoned  the  said  land  for 
more  than  six  months  at  any  time,  then  and  in  that  event  the  land 
so  entered  shall  revert  to  the  Government. 

Sec.  6.  And  be  it  further  enacted ,  That  no  individual  shall  be  per¬ 
mitted  to  acquire  title  to  more  than  one  quarter  section  under  the 
provisions  of  this  act;  and  that  the  Commissioner  of  the  General 
Land  Office  is  hereby  required  to  prepare  and  issue  such  rules  and^ 
regulations,  consistent  with  this  act.  as  shall  be  necessary  and  proper 
to  carry  its  provisions  into  effect ;  and  that  the  registers  and  receivers 
of  the  several  land  offices  shall  be  entitled  to  receive  the  same  com¬ 
pensation  for  any  lands  entered  under  the  provisions  of  this  act  that 
they  are  now  entitled  to  receive  when  the  same  quantity  of  land  is 
entered  with  money,  one  half  to  be  paid  by  the  person  making  the 
application  at  the  time  of  so  doing,  and  the  other  half  on  the  issue  of 
Hie  certificate  by  the  person  to  whom  it  may  be  issued  ;  but  this  shall 
not  be  construed  to  enlarge  the  maximum  of  compensation  now  pre¬ 
scribed  by  law  for  any  register  or  receiver :  Provided ,  That  nothing 
contained  in  this  act  shall  be  so  construed  as  to  impair  or  interfere  in 
any  manner  whatever  with  existing  pre-emption  rights  :  And  provided , 
further ,  That  all  persons  who  may  have  filed  their  applications  for  a 
pre-emption  right  prior  to  the  passage  of  this  act  shall  be  entitled  to 
all  privileges  of  this  act :  Provided ,  f  urther ,  That  no  person  who  has 
served,  or  may  hereafter  serve,  for  a  period  of  not  less  than  fourteen 
days  in  the  army  or  navy  of  the  United  States,  either  regular  or 
volunteer,  under  the  laws  thereof,  during  the  existence  of  an  actual 
war,  domestic  or  foreign,  shall  be  deprived  of  the  benefits  ot  this 
act  on  account  of  not  having  attained  the  age  of  twenty-one  years. 

Sec.  7.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  the  fifth  section  of  the  act 
entitled  ‘An  act  in  addition  to  an  act  more  effectually  to  provide  for 
the  punishment  of  certain  crimes  against  the  United  States,  and  for 
other  purposes,’  approved  the  third  of  March,  in  the  year  eighteen 
hundred  and  fifty-seven,  shall  extend  to  all  oaths,  affirmations,  and 
affidavits,  required  or  authorised  by  this  act. 

Sec.  8.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  nothing  in  this  act  shall  be 


APPENDIX. 


631 

(so  construed  as  to  prevent  any  person  who  lias  availed  him  or  heiself 
of  the  benefits  of  the  first  section  of  this  act  from  paying  the  minimum 
price,  or  the  price  to  which  the  same  may  have  graduated,  for  the 
quantity  of  land  so  entered  at  any  time  before  the  expiration  of  the 
five  years,  and  obtaining  a  patent  therefor  from  the  Government,  as 
in  other  cases  provided  by  law,  on  making  proof  of  settlement  and 
cultivation  as  provided  by  existing  laws  granting  pre-emption  rights. 

Approved  May  20,  18G2. 


SLAVERY. 

It  has  been  frequently  said  that  the  Irish  in  America  were,  as  a 
rule,  in  favour  of  slavery.  Were  it  said  that  they  were,  as  a  rule, 
against  slavery,  the  statement  would  be  much  nearer  to  the  truth.  I 
never  heard  an  Irishman  in  a  Northern  State  say  one  word  in  its 
favour.  Some  with  whom  I  spoke  were  enthusiastic  approvers  of  its 
extinction  at  any  cost  or  sacrifice,  as  purging  the  country  of  a  great 
evil,  if  not  a  great  sin ;  while  others,  less  enthusiastic,  or  more  re¬ 
flecting,  held  that  its  gradual  extinction  would  have  been  wiser,  more 
politic,  and  not  likely  to  produce  the  difficulties  and  embarrassments 
which  sudden  emancipation  was  but  too  certain  to  create ;  not  alone 
because  the  Slave-owning  States  were  unprepared  for  so  sweeping  a 
revolution,  but  that  the  slave  himself  was  unsuited  to  the  abrupt 
cessation  of  all  restriction  or  control  whatever.  These  Irishmen 
regretted  the  existence  of  slavery,  and  justly  regarded  it  as  a  fatal 
legacy  left  by  England  to  the  people  of  America  ;  but  they  were 
rather  in  favour  of  gradual,  yet  inevitable  change,  than  of  violent  oi 
reckless  revolution.  I  repeat,  I  never  heard  an  Irishman  in  a  Northern 
State  speak  in  favour  of  slavery  as  an  institution. 

Then  as  to  Irishmen  in  the  South ;  I  must  equally  assert,  that  1 
never  heard  an  Irishman  in  a  Southern  State,  not  to  say  approve 
of,  but  justify  slavery.  Southern  Irishmen  believed,  perhaps  more 
strongly  than  their  countrymen  in  the  North,  that  neither  the  circum¬ 
stances  of  the  country  nor  the  character,  capacity  nor  training  of  the 
negro  was  suited  to  sudden  emancipation  ;  but  they  at  the  same  time 
expressed  themselves  as  having  always  been  in  favour  of  gradual  and 
prudent  abolition — the  final  extinction  of  that  which  they  felt  to  be 
a  cause  of  grave  social  injury  and  national  weakness,  and  likewise  a 
fruitful  source  of  political  trouble,  possibly  ultimate  convulsion.  But 
these  Southern  Irishmen  took  their  stand  on  the  fundamental  principle 
of  State  Sovereignty,  as  guaranteed  by  the  Constitution,  and  denied  that 
Congress  had  any  right  whatever  to  interfere  with  the  institutions  of 


APPENDIX. 


635 

individual  States.  They  held, — and  in  this  they  had  the  sympathy  of 
a  vast  number  of  their  countrymen  in  the  North, — that  die  emanci¬ 
pation  of  the  slave,  especially  regarding  it  in  its  present  results,  was 
hardly  worth  the  torrents  of  generous  blood  shed  in  its  accomplish¬ 
ment.  Still,  they  are  satisfied  at  seeing  an  end  to  a  cause  of  weakness 
and  contention  between  different  portions  of  the  Union,  though  they 
know  the  South  has  to  pass  through  some  further  tribulation  before 
things  can  settle  down  into  perfect  order  and  tranquillity. 

This  is  the  result  of  my  information  on  this  point,  derived  from 
unreserved  communication  with  Irishmen  at  both  sides  of  the  line. 

And  as  to  the  policy  of  the  Catholic  Church  with  respect  to  slavery, 
I  cannot  do  better,  than  subjoin  the  following  interesting  communi¬ 
cation  from  an  eminent  ecclesiastic,  who  affords  as  much  information 
upon  the  subject  as  I  can  venture  to  press  into  this  note. 

Bishop  England  wrote  a  series  of  letters  on  Domestic  Slavery,  in 
which  he  undertakes  to  show  the  position  of  the  Catholic  Church  on 
that  question.  The  ‘  abolitionist ’  party  had  then  caused  great  ex¬ 
citement  at  the  South.  They  were  resisted  on  two  grounds:  first, 
because  the  interference  of  other  States,  or  of  Congress,  in  that 
question  would  have  been  subversive  of  the  American  system  of 
government,  the  question  being  one  of  those  reserved  to  the  authority 
of  each  State,  which  on  such  a  point  was  sovereign.  To  try  inter¬ 
ference  with  them  from  without  their  own  States  would  have  been  an 
invasion  of  their  rights,  as  much  as  if  it  had  been  done  by  the  British 
Parliament.  Second,  because  emancipation,  even  if  desirable,  should 
be  conducted  with  precautions  which  the  Abolitionists  were  unwilling 
to  listen  to. 

Besides  those  who  resisted  him  on  these  grounds,  there  were,  of 
course,  many  who  defended  slavery  as  in  itself  a  desirable  condition 
of  things,  especially  for  the  coloured  race. 

Bishop  England  did  not  belong  to  the  latter  class ;  and  in  a  note  to 
the  last  letter  of  the  series  alluded  to  he  defines  his  position  as 
follows.  He  was  obliged  to  interrupt  the  course  of  letters  he  intended 
publishing,  and  on  the  23rd  of  April,  1840,  he  writes  as  follows  to  the 
editors  of  the  ‘  United  States  Catholic  Miscellany,’  in  which  they  were 
published  : — 

‘  Gentlemen, — My  more  pressing  duties  will  not  permit  me  for  some 
‘‘  weeks  to  continue  the  letters  on  the  compatibility  of  domestic  slavery 
‘  with  practical  religion.  I  have  been  asked  by  many  a  question  which 
‘  I  may  as  well  answer  at  once,  viz.  Whether  I  am  friendly  to  the 
‘  existence  or  continuation  of  slavery  ?  I  am  not.  But  I  also  see  the 
‘  impossibility  of  now  abolishing  it  here.  When  it  can  and  ought  to 
*  be  abolished,  is  a  question  for  the  legislature,  and  not  for  me.’  (See 
his  Works,  vol.  iii.  p.  190.) 

Any  one  acquainted  with  the  state  of  feeling  on  this  subject  in 
Charleston  at  the  time,  cannot  but  feel  that  a  great  amount  of  courage 
was  necessary  to  say  even  that  much. 


63G 


APPENDIX. 


On  his  return  from  Europe  some  time  after,  he  informed  one  of  hia 
most  intimate  friends,  that  he  intended  resuming  the  subject,  and 
showing  what  were  the  rights  of  slaves,  as  Christians  and  as  men, 
what  were  the  duties  of  masters ;  and  that  he  intended  giving  the 
slaveholders  a  lecture,  such  as  they  never  had  received  before.  In  the 
published  letters  he  was  anxious  to  show  them  that  the  Catholic 
Church  had  never  declared  the  holding  of  slaves  to  be  in  itself  sinful ; 
that  the  Encyclical  Letter  of  Gregory  XVI.,  which  had  given  rise 
to  the  controversy,  condemned  the  capture  of  free  men,  and  taking 
them  unjustly  into  slavery,  as  war  had  done  on  the  coast  of  Africa, 
hut  did  not  affect  domestic  slavery  under  all  circumstances.  His  in¬ 
tention  was  to  show  what  rights  the  slave  necessarily  retained,  which 
masters  and  legislatures  were  bound  to  respect  and  to  protect ;  and 
having  first  cleared  himself  from  the  charge  of  abolitionism  in  its 
political  meaning  as  then  understood,  he  intended  to  be  frank  and 
full  in  this  subject.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  sickness,  and  then 
death,  prevented  the  carrying  out  of  this  idea.  I  have  no  doubt  that 
he  would  have  been  a  powerful  advocate  of  the  poor  slave  in  his 
rights  as  to  personal  protection,  and  religious  liberty,  and  in  his  family 
relations,  reducing  the  master's  claims  merely  to  his  labour,  for  which 
compensation  was  given  in  food,  clothing,  &c. ;  and  even  the  system 
that  denied  him  the  power  of  disposing  of  them  as  he  pleased,  would 
have  been  shown  fraught  with  many  evils,  and  a  change  loudly  called 
for  as  soon  as  circumstances  would  admit  of  it. 

I  would  refer  to  two  other  facts,  showing  the  position  of  the 
Catholic  Church  in  the  South  with  regard  to  slavery.  One  was  a 
sermon  preached,  I  think,  in  New  Orleans,  while  the  Southern  Con¬ 
federacy  was  at  the  moment  of  its  highest  prospect  of  success,  by 
Bishop  Verot  of  Savannah.  He  first  undertook  to  prove  that  slavery 
was  not  essentially  sinful,  and  he  answered  the  objection  made  against 
it.  But  then  he  went  on  to  show  in  what  condition  it  could  be  tole¬ 
rated  amongst  Christians.  He  showed  what  were  the  rights  of 
slaves,  and  the  obligations  of  masters,  in  a  manner  which  would  have 
deprived  it  of  its  chief  horrors.  This  during  the  reign  of  the  Con¬ 
federacy  ! 

During  the  same  time  Bishop  M‘Gill  published  a  book  at  Richmond, 
in  which  he  stated  it  as  his  opinion,  that  the  calamities  under  which 
the  country  was  suffering  might  be  attributed  to  a  chastisement  of 
Heaven  for  the  manner  in  which  the  slaves  were  left  unprotected  in 
their  marriage  relations. 


ESSENTIAL  IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  FOREIGN  ELE¬ 
MENT  TO  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA. 

It  may  be  of  some  advantage  to  exhibit  the  importance  of  the 
foreign  element  to  the  American  Republic,  not  alone  in  developing 
the  general  resources  of  the  country,  and  assisting  to  occupy  and 
populate,  and  thus  make  valuable,  new  territories :  but  to  preserve 


APPENDIX. 


637 


from  gradual  decay,  from  annual  wasting  away,  from  eventual  and 
absolute  extinction,  communities  which  were  at  one  lime  hostile  to  the 
foreigner,  and  even  haughtily  impatient  of  his  presence.  This  absurd 
hostility  to  the  foreigner  was  more  prevalent  in  the  New  England 
States  than  in  any  other  portion  of  the  Union  ;  and  in  Massachusetts 
various  ‘isms’  of  the  Native-American  stamp,  almost  invariably  op 
posed  to  the  stranger,  have  had  their  origin.  And  yet  it  is  beyond 
doubt  that,  only  for  the  foreign  element,  or  the  infusion  of  life-blood 
into  the  failing  system  of  this  most  prominent  of  these  New  England 
States,  its  population  would  have  dwindled  away,  and,  practically, 
would  have  given  up  the  ghost !  This,  no  doubt,  is  a  very  startling 
announcement,  if  true.  But  is  it  true  ?  It  is  indisputable,  there 
cannot  be  a  doubt  as  to  its  truth. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  State  Charities,  in  his  Third  Annual 
Report,  dated  October  I860,  makes  use  of,  and  incorporates  with  the 
first  part  of  that  Report,  a  document  to  which  he  attaches  evident 
importance.  It  forms  a  portion  of  the  Fourth  Chapter,  and  is  headed 
‘  Inferences  from  Registration  and  Census  Reports.’  The  paper  in 
question  is  thus  introduced : — 

‘In  closing  this  part  of  my  Report,  I  shall  have  occasion  to  avail 

*  myself  of  the  studies  of  a  member  of  this  Board,  formerly  its  Chair- 
‘  man,  and  now  the  Chairman  of  its  Committee  on  Statistics.  The 
‘patient  investigations  which  Dr.  Allen  has  been  making  for  years  in 
‘  regard  to  the  increase  of  population  in  Massachusetts,  have  led  him 
‘  to  some  conclusions  which  to  many  appear  novel  and  startling,  while 
‘  others  recognise  them  as  familiar  to  the  course  of  their  own  thoughts. 
‘  At  my  request,  he  has  allowed  me  to  cite  from  his  manuscripts  the 

•  following  passages.’ 

Unfortunately  there  is  not  space  remaining  to  do  full  justice  to  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  and  suggestive  papers  ever  presented  to  the 
American  public ;  but  a  few  extracts  from  it  will  be  sufficient  to  show 
how  essential  to  the  progress — nay,  the  very  life — of  the  New  England 
States  is  their  foreign,  in  other  words,  their  Irish  population. 


The  increase  in  these  ten  years  of  those  born  in  Massachusetts  is 
110,313,  but  a  considerable  portion  are  the  children  of  foreigners.  By 
referring  to  the  table  of  those  born  in  foreign  lands,  it  will  be  seen 
that  there  was  an  increase  of  emigrants  from  Ireland  in  these  ten 
years  of  69,517.  The  number  must  have  been  considerably  larger 
than  this,  a3  many  counted  foreign  born  in  the  Census  of  1850  must 
have  died  between  that  date  and  I860.  The  whole  increase  of  foreign 
born  from  1850  to  1860  was  99,205.  The  foreign  element,  next  largest 
to  the  Irish,  is  27,069  from  British  America,  including  persons  of 
Canadian,  French,  English,  Irish  and  Scotch  extraction.  Next  in 
point  of  numbers  are  the  English,  German  and  Scotch.  It  should  be 
observed  that  this  second  table  gives  ouly  those  born  in  a  foreign 


APPENDIX. 


638 

land,  and  not.  the  children  of  foreigners  born  in  Massachusetts.  These 
are  included  in  the  .first  table,  among  the  805.519  born  within  the 
State.* 

The  remaining  extracts,  which  will  be  found  of  very  great  interest, 
are  now  given,  and  may  well  stand  without  note  or  comment 


II. —  The  Foreign  Element  in  Massachusetts. 

But  in  order  to  understand  correctly  the  increase  and  the  changes 
in  our  population,  the  history  and  number  of  those  of  a  foreign  origin 
must  be  carefully  noted.  The  rapid  increase  of  this  class,  and  the 
changes  consequent  upon  its  future  growth,  afford  themes  which  de¬ 
serve  the  most  grave  consideration. 

The  Census  at  different  periods  returns  this  element  as  follows : — 
1830,  9,620;  1840,  34,818;  1850,  164,448;  and  1860,  260.114.  Here 
within  30  years,  commencing,  with  less  than  10,000,  we  have  an  in¬ 
crease,  by  immigration  alone,  to  over  250.000.  It  should  be  observed, 
that  this  does  not  include  the  great  number  of  children  born  in  this 
State  of  foreign  extraction.  The  first  Registration  Report  that  dis¬ 
criminated  in  the  births  as  to  parentage  was  that  of  1850,  returning 
8.197  of  this  class,  and  3,278  mixed  or  not  stated.  In  1860,  the 
number  had  increased  to  17,549,  besides  nearly  1,000  not  stated.  In 
1850,  the  foreign  births  were  only  one-lidlf  as  many  as  the  American, 
hut  they  continued  to  gam  every  year  afterwards  upon  the  American  till 
1860,  when  they  obtained  a  majority.  This  year  will  ever  constitute  an 
important  era  in  the  history  of  Massachusetts  when  the  foreign  element , 
composing  only  about  one-third  part  of  the  population  of  the  State,  pro¬ 
duced  more  children  than  the  American.  Since  1860  they  have  gained 
every  year  upon  the  American,  till  in  1865  their  births  numbered  almost 
1,000  more  than  the  American. 

From  1850  to  1860,  the  Registration  Reports  make  the  foreign  births 
137,146,  besides  18,598  not  stated,  a  large  portion  of  which  un¬ 
doubtedly  was  of  foreign  origin.  Then  the  number  of  such  births  from 
1830  to  1850  cannot  be  definitely  stated,  but,  judging  by  the  amount 
of  foreign  population  at  this  period  and  its  fruitfulness  at  other  times, 
the  number  of  births  would  certainly  come  up  to  50,000  or  more. 
Now  what  proportion  of  those  of  this  character  born  from  1830  to 
1860,  might  have  been  living  when  the  Census  of  1860  was  taken,  we 
cannot  tell  ;  all  that  can  be  determined  upon  the  subject  is  only  an 
approximation  to  the  truth.  It  is  estimated,  where  the  mortality  is 
largest,  that  only  from  two-fifths  to'  one-half  of  all  those  born — includ¬ 
ing  both  the  city  and  the  country — live  to  reach  adult  life.  After 
making  allowance  for  this  fact,  and  considering  that  by  far  the  largest 
proportion  of  these  births  occurred  in  the  years  immediately  preceding 
1860,  we  think  it  perfectly  safe  to  say  that  there  must  have  been  over 
100,000  persons  of  this  class  included  in  the  United  States  Census 
returned  as  native  born  in  Massachusetts,  or,  in  other  words,  as 

*  *  Children  born  in  the  United  States  of  foreign  parents,  are  classed  as  Ameri¬ 
can.  Had  the  children  of  foreigners  been  included  with  the  foreign  born,  the 
ligures  in  the  column  of  the  foreign  population  would  have  been  much  more 
imposing.’ — U.  S.  Census,  1860,  Abstract,  p.  337- 

‘It  must  be  remembered  that  the  children  born  in  the  United  States  of 
foreign  parents  are  classed  with  the  natives.’  —  State  Census  Abstract,  p.  233, 
1855. 


APPENDIX. 


639 


American.  This  fact  would  change  materially  the  Census  ropoit.  It 
would  take  at  least  100,000  from  the  American  portion — 970,000— 
and  add  100.000  to  the  200.000  reported  as  born  in  foreign  countries. 
This  result  makes  at  that  time  almost  one-half  of  our  population  strictly 
of  a  foreign  origin  !  It  is  expressly  stated,  both  in  the  United  States 
and  State  Censuses,  that  the  returns  are  made  upon  the  nativities  of 
the  population.  Judging  by  these  facts  and  figures,  it  would  seem 
that  the  foreign  population  is  actually  much  larger  in  this  State  than  has 
generally  been  considered. 

*  *  in  %  *  .  *  *  $  * 


III. — Distribution  and  Employment  of  the  Foreign  Population. 

But  this  class  of  people  do  not  all  live  in  the  cities.  They  are 
found  scattered  in  almost  every  town  and  neighbourhood  in  the  Com¬ 
monwealth.  The  men  came  first  to  build  railroads,  to  dig  canals, 
cellars,  and  aid  in  laying  the  foundation  of  mills,  dwellings,  and  public 
buildings.  Then  came  the  women  to  act  as  servants  and  domestics  in 
families,  as  well  as  to  find  useful  employment  in  shops  and  mills. 
Then  came  parents,  children  and  whole  families.  To  such  an  extent 
have  they  increased  by  immigration  and  birth,  that  they  now  perform 
a  very  large  portion  of  the  domestic  service  in  all  our  families ;  they 
constitute  everywhere  a  majority  of  the  hired  labourers  upon  the  farm  ; 
they  are  found  extensively  engaged  in  trade  and  mechanical  pursuits, 
particularly  in  the  shoe  business,  and  compose  by  far  the  largest  pro¬ 
portion  of  all  the  operatives  in  the  mills. 

Within  a  few  years,  they  have  become  extensive  owners  of  real 
estate.  In  the  cities  they  have  built  or  bought  a  very  large  number 
of  small  shops  and  cheap  dwellings,  and  in  the  rural  districts  as  well 
as  in  the  farming  towns  throughout  the  State,  they  have  purchased 
very  extensively  small  lots  of  land,  small  places,  and  old  farms  par¬ 
tially  run  out  ;  and  ( what  is  significant)  they  pay  for  whatever  real 
estate  they  buy ,  and  are  scarcely  ever  known  to  sell  any.  In  fact,  it  has 
come  to  such  a  pass,  that  they  perform  a  very  large  proportion  of  the 
physical  labour  throughout  the  State,  whether  it  be  in  the  mill  or  in 
the  shop,  whether  in  the  family  or  upon  the  farm.  As  far  as  muscular 
exercise  is  concerned,  they  constitute  'the  hone  and  sinew 7  of  the  land, 
oral  it  would  be  very  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  dispense  with  their  ser¬ 
vices.  Every  year  the  Americans  are  becoming  more  and  more  depen¬ 
dent  upon  them  for  manual  labour,  both  in-doors  and  out-of-doors. 
Should  the  foreign  population  continue  to  increase  as  they  have  in  the 
past,  twenty  or  thirty  years,  and  the  American  portion  remain  sta¬ 
tionary  to  decrease,  a  question  of  no  ordinary  interest  arises,  what  will 
be  tim  state  •  of  society  thirty  or  fifty  years  hence  in  this  Common¬ 
weal  ill  ? 


IV _ - Comparative  Increase  of  Natives  and  Foreigners. 

From  1850  to  I860,  the  fifteen  Registration  Reports  return  208,730 
births  of  strictly  foreign  parentage,  besides  22.37 (i  not  stated,  a  large 
portion  of  which  must  be  foreign.  All  of  these  living  when  the  Census 
is  taken,  would  be  considered,  according  to  present  usage,  American ; 


640 


APPENDIX. 


whereas  they  should  be  counted  strictly  under  the  foreign  head.  A 
careful  analysis  of  the  Census  and  Registration  Reports  presents  the 
following  facts : — 


The  increase  of  population  in  the  State  has  been  confined  principally 
to  cities  and  towns  where  manufacturing,  mechanical  and  commercial 
business  is  carried  on.  In  the  purely  agricultural  districts,  there  has 
been  very  little  increase  of  population.  Railroads  have  had  a  powerful 
influence  in  changing  the  population  of  the  State  from  the  hills  and 
country  towns  to  the  valleys. and  plains.  Wherever  water-power,  or 
steam-power,  has  been  introduced,  or  where  trade  and  commerce  has 
found  advantages,  there  population  has  greatly  increased.  The  eastern 
section  of  the  State  has  increased  far  more  than  the  middle  or  western 
districts.  Population  in  manufacturing  places  has  increased  about  five 
times  more  than  in  agricultural  districts.  It  is  found  also,  wherever 
there  has  been  much  or  a  rapid  increase  of  population,  it  has  been  made 
vp  largely  of  a  foreign  element.  Now  if  a  line  could  be  drawn  exactly 
between  the  American  and  foreign  population,  as  it  respects  this 
increase,  it  would  throw  much  light  upon  the  subject.  According  to 
the  Census  of  1860,  it  appears  that  two  counties  —  Dukes  and  Nan¬ 
tucket—  had  actually  decreased  in  population.  There  were  eighty-six 
towns  also  which  had  diminished  in  population  between  1850  and  I860. 
In  a  small  part  of  these  towns,  this  change  is  accounted  for  by  the 
fact  that  some  section  of  the  place  had,  in  the  mean  time,  been  set  off 
to  another  town.  The  places  in  the  State  that  have  increased  the  least , 
or  declined  in  population,  are  found  to  be  settled  generally  with  American 
stock. 

A  serious  question  here  arises,  Is  there  a  natural  increase  in  this 
class  of  the  community  ?  It  is  generally  admitted  that  foreigners  have 
a  far  greater  number  of  children,  for  the  same  number  of  inhabitants, 
than  the  Americans.  It  is  estimated  by  some  physicians,  that  the  same 
number  of  married  persons  of  the  former  have,  on  an  average,  three 
times  as  many  children  as  an  equal  number  of  those  of  the  latter.  This 
gives  the  foreign  element  great  power  of  increase  of  population — de¬ 
rived  not  so  much  from  emigration  as  from  the  births,  exceeding 
greatly  the  deaths. 

********* 

In  a  report  upon  the  comparative  view  of  the  population  of  Boston 
in  1819  and  1850,  made  to  the  city  government.  November  1851. 
Dr.  Jesse  Ohickering.  after  a  most  careful  analysis  of  the  Births  and 
Deaths  in  Boston,  states  that  *  the  most  important  fact  derived  from 
this  view,  is  the  result  that  the  whole  increase  of  population  arising 
from  the  excess  of  Births  over  Deaths  for  these  two  years,  has  been 
among  the  foreign  population.’  Since  1850  we  think  it  will  be  very 
difficult  to  prove  that  there  has  been  any  natural  increase  of  popula¬ 
tion  in  Boston  with  the  strictly  American  population. 

Again,  many  towns  in  the  State  have  been  settled  over  two  hun¬ 
dred  years,  and  their  history  will  include  from  six  to  eight  genera¬ 
tions.  The  records  of  several  of  these  towns  have  been  carefully 
examined  with  respect  to  the  relative  number  of  children  in  each 
generation.  It  was  found  that  the  families  comprising  the  first  genera¬ 
tion  had  on  an  average  between  eight  and  ten  children ;  the  next  three 
generations  averaged  between  seven  and  eight  to  each  family ;  the  fifth 


APPENDIX. 


041 


generation  about  five,  and  the  sixth  less  than  three  to  each  family. 
What  a  change  as  to  the  size  of  the  families  since  those  olden  times  ! 
Then  large  families  were  common, — now  the  exception  ;  then  it  was 
rare  to  find  married  persons  having  only  one,  two  or  three  children; 
now  it  is  very  common!  Then  it  was  regarded  a  calamity  for  a  married 
couple  to  have  no  children — now  such  calamities  are  found  on  every 
side  of  us — in  fact,  they  are  fashionable. 

It  is  the  uniform  testimony  of  physicians  who  have  been  exten¬ 
sively  engaged  in  the  practice  of  medicine,  twenty,  thirty,  forty  and 
fifty  years  in  this  State, — and  who  have  the  best  possible  means  of 
understanding  this  whole  subject, — that  there  has  been  gradually  a  very 
great  falling  off  in  the  number  of  children  among  American  families. 

This  decrease  of  children  is  found  to  'prevail  in  country  towns  and 
rural  districts  almost  to  the  same  extent  as  in  the  cities,  which  is  contrary 
to  the  general  impression.  In  view  of  these  facts,  several  questions 
naturally  arise : — If  the  foreign  population  in  Massachusetts  continues 
to  increase  as  it  has,  and  the  American  portion  remains  stationary,  or 
decreases,  as  the  probabilities  indicate,  what  will  be  the  state  of 
society  here  twenty-five,  fifty  or  a  hundred  years  hence  ?  How  long- 
will  it  be  before  the  foreign  portion  will  outnumber  the  American  in 
our  principal  cities  and  towns,  or  constitute  even  a  majority  in  the 
whole  Commonwealth  ? 

The  cause  why  there  should  be  such  a  difference  in  the  number  of 
children,  between  the  American  families  now  upon  the  stage,  and 
those  of  the  same  stock,  one,  two  and  three  generations  ago,  is  a 
subject  of  grave  enquiry.  Again,  why  should  there  be  such  a  dif¬ 
ference  in  this  respect,  between  American  families  and  those  of  the 
English,  German,  Scotch  and  Irish  of  the  present  day  ?  Is  this  dif¬ 
ference  owing  to  our  higher  civilisation  or  to  a  more  artificial  mode 
of  life  and  the  unwholesome  state  of  society?  Or  can  it  be  attributed 
to  a  degeneracy  in  the  physical  condition  and  organisation  of  females,  or 
a  settled  determination  with  the  married  to  have  no  children  or  a  very 
limited  number  ? J 

1  Such/  says  the  Secretary,  ‘  are  the  questions  raised  by  Dr.  Allen, 
and  such  are  some  of  the  facts  which  their  investigation  calls  forth.' 

With  the  questions  raised  by  Dr.  Allen  in  this’  Public  Document, 
which  Massachusetts  has  published  among  its  State  Papers,  I  do  not 
attempt  to  deal:  but  I  may  respectfully  suggest  another, — namely, 
Does  not  Native-Americanism,  or  Know-Nothingisin,  or  any  similar 
•ism/  appear  intensely  ridiculous  and  profoundly  absurd,  in  the  face 
>f  such  facts  as  these? 


642 


APPENDIX. 


BIOGRAPHIC  SKETCH  OF  MAJOR-GENERAL 

P.  R.  CLEBURNE. 

(BY  GENERAL  W.  T.  HARDEE.) 

The  sketch  is  necessarily  imperfect,  from  the  want  of  official  records. 
Most  of  these  were  lost  or  destroyed  by  the  casualties  attending  the 
close  of  the  late  war ;  and  those  still  in  existence  are  difficult  of  access. 
Of  Cleburne’s  early  life  little  is  known — the  record  of  his  service  in  the 
Southern  armies  belongs  to  the  yet  unwritten  history  of  ‘  the  lost 
cause.’  In  better  days,  when  the  passions  and  prejudices  engendered 
by  civil  strife  shall  have  disappeared,  and  history  brings  in  a  dis¬ 
passionate  verdict,  the  name  of  Cleburne  will  appear  high  in  the  lists 
of  patriots  and  warriors.  Until  then,  his  best  record  is  in  the  hearts 
of  his  adopted  countrymen. 

With  brief  exceptions  Cleburne  served  under  my  immediate  com¬ 
mand  during  his  military  career.  He  succeeded  first  to  the  brigade, 
and  then  to  the  division  which  I  had  previously  commanded  ;  and  it 
is  to  me  a  grateful  recollection,  that  circumstances  enabled  me  to 
further  his  advancement  to  those  important  trusts.  From  personal 
knowledge,  therefore,  gained  in  an  intercourse  and  observation  ex¬ 
tending  through  a  period  of  nearly  four  years,  I  can  give  you  an 
outline  sketch  of  Cleburne’s  character  and  services. 

Patrick  Ronayne  Cleburne  was  an  Irishman  by  birth,  a  Southerner 
by  adoption  and  residence,  a  lawyer  by  profession  ;  a  soldier  in  the 
British  army,  by  accident,  in  his  youth ;  and  a  soldier  in  the  Southern 
armies,  from  patriotism  and  conviction  of  duty,  in  his  manhood.  Upon 
coming  to  the  United  States  he  located  at  Helena,  Arkansas,  where 
he  studied  and  practised  law. 

In  that  profession  he  had,  previous  to  the  great  struggle,  formed  a 
co-partnership  with  General  T.  C.  Hindman.  His  standing  as  a  lawyer 
was  high,  as  indicated  by  this  association  with  a  gentleman  distin¬ 
guished  as  an  orator  and  advocate. 

It  was  at  this  period  of  his  life  that,  in  the  unorganised  and  turbulent 
condition  of  society,  incident  to  a  newly  settled  country,  he  established 
a  reputation  for  courage  and  firmnesss,  "which  was  afterwards  approved 
by  a  still  more  trying  ordeal.  In  the  commencement  of  the  war  for 
Southern  independence,  he  enlisted  as  a  private.  He  was  subsequently 
made  captain  of  his  company,  and  shortly  after  was  elected  and  com¬ 
missioned  colonel  of  his  regiment.  Thus,  from  one  grade  to  another, 
he  gradually  rose  to  the  high  rank  he  held  when  ne  fell.  It  is  but 
scant  praise  to  say,  there  was  no  truer  patriot,  no  more  courageous 
soldier,  nor,  of  his  rank,  more  able  commanler,  in  the  Southern  armies; 


APPENDIX.  m 

and  it  is  not  too  much  to  add  that  his  fall  was  a  greater  loss  to  the 
cause  he  espoused  than  that  of  any  other  Confederate  leadet ,  softer 
Stonewall  Jackson.  In  the  camp  of  the  army  which  Albert  Sydney 
Johnston  assembled  at  Bowling  Green,  Kentucky,  in  the  autumn  of  1861, 
Cleburne  had  an  opportunity  in  the  drill  and  organisation  of  the  raw 
troops,  of  which  that  army  was  then  composed,  of  proving  his  qualifi¬ 
cations  as  a  disciplinarian  and  commander.  Ilis  natural  abilities  in 
this  respect  had  probably  been  fostered  by  his  early  tuition  in  the 
British  army;  and  upon  his  becoming  a  soldier  a  second  time,  were 
perfected  by  unremitting  study  and  labour.  These  qualities  secured 
his  promotion  to  brigadier-general.  In  April,  1862,  Albert  Sydney 
Johnston  concentrated  his  forces  at  Corinth,  Mississippi,  to  attack 
General  Grant,  who  had  landed  an  army  at.  Pittsburg,  on  the  Ten¬ 
nessee  river,  which  was  now  encamped  near  Shiloh  Church,  about 
three  miles  from  the  landing.  The  attack  was  made  on  the  morning 
of  the  6th  of  April.  Cleburne's  brigade  was  of  my  corps,  which  formed 
the  front  line  of  attack.  The  enemy  were  steadily  driven  for  three 
miles  through  their  encampments,  past  the  rich  spoils  with  which  a 
luxurious  soldiery  had  surrounded  themselves,  and  over  the  heaps  of 
their  dead  and  dying,  until  the  broken  and  demoralised  masses  sought 
the ‘shelter  of  the  river's  banks,  and  the  cover  of  their  gunboats. 
Albert  Sydney  Johnston  had  fallen  in  action  about  2  o’clock  p.m. 
Ilis  successor  in  command,  General  Beauregard,  deemed  it  best,  late 
in  the  evening,  to  recall  the  pursuit.  At  the  moment  of  recall, 
Cleburne  was  pressing  on,  within  100  yards  of  Pittsburg  Landing, 
behind  the  cliffs  of  which  cowered  the  masses  of  hopeless  and  helpless 
fugitives.  That  night  the  enemy  were  reinforced  by  the  arrival  of  a 
fresh  army  under  Buell  ;  and,  on  the  evening  of  the  7th,  the  Southern 
forces,  after  maintaining,  through  the  day,  the  now  unequal  struggle*, 
withdrew,  unpursued,  to  Corinth.  In  this  battle  Cleburne’s  brigade  sus¬ 
tained  a  heavier  loss  in  killed  and  wounded  than  any  other  in  the  army. 

At  the  initiation  •  of  General  Bragg's  Kentucky  campaign,  in  the 
summer  of  1862,  Cleburne’s  brigade,  with  one  other,  was  detatched 
and  united  with  Kirby  Smith’s  column,  which,  starting  from  Knox¬ 
ville,  Tennessee,  was  to  penetrate  Kentucky  through  Cumberland  Gap 
and  form  a  junction  with  the  main  army  under  General  Bragg,  which 
moved  from  Chattanooga  into  Kentucky  by  a  different  rout.  Kirby 
Smith’s  forces  encountered  opposition  at  Richmond,  Kentucky,  in 
September.  There  Cleburne  directed  the  first  day’s  fighting,  and  in 
his  first  handling  of  an  independent  command  was  mainly  instru¬ 
mental  in  winning  a  victory,  which,  in  the  number  of  prisoners  and 
amount  of  stores  captured,  and  in  the  utter  dispersion  and  destruction 
of  the  opposing  force,  was  one  of  the  most  complete  of  the  war.  For 


APPENDIX. 


844 

‘gallant  and  meritorious  service  ’  here,  he  received  an  official  vote  of 
thanks  from  the  Congress  of  the  Confederate  States.  In  this  action 
he  received  a  singular  wound.  The  missile,  a  minie  rifle  ball,  entered 
the  aperture  of  the  mouth  while  his  mouth  was  open,  in  the  act  of 
giving  a  command  to  the  troops  in  action,  without  touching  his  lips, 
and  passed  out  of  the  left  cheek,  carrying  away  in  its  course  live 
lower  teeth,  without  touching  or  injuring  the  bone.  This  wound 
did  not  prevent  his  taking  part  in  the  battle  of  Perryville  on  the  8th 
of  October  following,  where  he  rejoined  my  command,  and  was  again 
wounded  while  leading  his  brigade  in  a  gallant  charge. 

An  incident  occurred  in  the  march  out  of  Kentucky,  which  will 
serve  to  illustrate  Cleburne’s  indomitable  will  and  energy.  On  the 
road  selected  for  the  passage  of  ordnance  and  supply  trains  of  the 
army,  was  a  very  difficult  hill,  at  which  the  trains  unable  to  pass 
over  it,  or  to  go  round  it,  came  to  a  dead  halt.  The  enemy  were 
pressing  the  rear,  the  trains  were  immovable,  and  nothing  seemed  lei t 
but  to  destroy  them,  to  prevent  their  falling  into  the  hands  of  the 
enemy  ;  orders  had  actually  been  given  for  their  destruction  when 
Cleburne,  who  was  disabled  and  off  duty  on  account  of  his  wound, 
came  up.  He  asked  and  was  given  unlimited  authority  in  the  pre¬ 
mises.  He  at  once  stationed  guards  in  the  road,  arrested  every 
straggler  and  passing  officer  and  soldier,  collected  a  large  force, 
organised  fatigue  parties,  and  literally  lifted  the  trains  over  the  hill. 
The  trains  thus  preserved  contained  munitions  and  subsistence  of  the 
utmost  value  and  necessity  to  the  Confederates.  It  is  by  no  means 
certain  even  that  the  army  could  have  made  its  subsequent  long 
march  through  a  sterile  and  wasted  country  without  them. 

In  December  1862,  General  Bragg  concentrated  his  army  at  Mur¬ 
freesboro.  Tennessee,  to  oppose  the  Federal  forces  assembled  at  Nash¬ 
ville  under  Rosecrans.  At  this  time,  Major-general  Buckner,  then 
commanding  the  division  of  which  Cleburne’s  brigade  formed  a  part, 
was  transferred  to  other  service,  and  the  President  of  the  Confederate 
States,  who  was  on  a  visit  to  the  army  at  the  time,  promoted  Cleburne 
to  the  vacant  division.  Rosecrans’  advance  upon  Bragg  brought  on  the 
battle  of  Murfreesboro,  Dec.  31, 1862.  In  the  action  of  this  day  Cleburne's 
was  one  of  the  two  divisions  under  my  command,  which  attacked  the 
right  wing  of  the  Federal  army,  under  M'Cook.  This  wing  was  beaten 
and  driven  three  miles,  until  its  extreme  right  was  doubled  back  upon 
the  centre  of  the  Federal  army.  During  the  day,  Cleburne’s  division  in 
single  line  of  battle,  without  reinforcement,  rest,  or  refreshment,  en¬ 
countered  and  drove  before  it  five  successive  lines  of  battle,  which  the 
Federal  commander-in-chief  withdrew  from  his  intact  centre  and  left 
to  reinforce  his  broken  right.  The  general  results  of  the  day  were  not 


APPENDIX. 


045 

decisive  in  favour  of  the  Southern  arms  ;  but  this  heightens  the 
achievement  of  that  portion  of  the  army  which  was  successful,  and 
the  merit  of  the  officer  whose  skilful  handling  of  his  division  contri¬ 
buted  materially  to  that  success. 

From  the  battle  of  Murfreesboro7  to  that  of  Chickamauga,  in  Sep¬ 
tember,  1803,  military  operations  in  the  army  with  which  Cleburne 
was  connected  were  of  a  desultory  and  undecisive  character.  But 
outpost  duty  in  close  proximity  to  an  enemy  superior  in  numbers, 
afforded  Cleburne  occasion  for  the  exercise  of  his  high  soldierly 
qualities  of  vigilance  and  activity.  In  the  advance  from  Tullahoma 
to  War  trace,  and  the  subsequent  retirement  of  the  army  to  Chatta¬ 
nooga,  his  division  habitually  formed  the  vanguard  in  advance  and 
the  rearguard  in  retreat.  The  battle  of  Chickamauga  —  an  Indian 
name  which  signifies  ‘the  river  of  death’ — wrote  the  bloodiest  page 
in  the  history  of  Western  battles.  General  Bragg,  reinforced  by 
Longstreet’s  corps  from  Virginia,  on  the  19th  and  20th  of  September 
engaged  and,  after  an  obstinate  contest,  defeated,  Rosecrans’  army,. 
#rhich,  routed  and  demoralised,  retreated  within  its  line  of  works  at 
■Chattanooga.  In  this  battle  Cleburne’s  division  bore  its  usual  promi¬ 
nent  part ;  a  charge  made  by  it,  in  the  struggle  for  position  in  the 
adjustment  of  lines  on  the  Saturday  evening  preceding  the  Sunday’s 
final  conflict,  is  described  as  especially  magnificent  and  effective. 

The  Confederate  forces  soon  after  occupied  Missionary  Ridge,  and 
partially  invested  Chattanooga,  with  the  object  of  cutting  off  the 
supplies  of  the  army  within  its  lines.  The  attempt  was  but  partially 
successful.  Meantime  the  Federal  government  despatched  General 
Grant  to  succeed  Rosecrans  in  command,  and  recalled  Sherman’s 
army  from  Mississippi  to  reinforce  him.  On  the  24th  of  November. 
Grant,  reinforced  by  Sherman,  attacked  Bragg,  weakened  by  the  de¬ 
tachment  of  Longstreet’s  corps,  and  carried  the  position  of  the  Con¬ 
federate  left  on  Lookout  Mountain.  On  the  25th  a  general  attack 
was  made  upon  the  Confederate  line.  The  right  wing,  under  my 
command,  consisted  of  four  divisions  —  Cleburne’s  on  the  extreme 
right.  The  attacking  force  in  this  part  of  the  field  was  commanded 
by  General  Sherman.  The  enemy  made  repeated  and  vigorous 
assaults,  which  were  repelled  with  heavy  loss  to  the  assailants. 
Cleburne’s  position  on  the  right  was  most  insecuie,  from  its  liabi¬ 
lity  to  be  turned.  He  maintained  it  with  his  accustomed  ability 
and  upon  the  repulse  of  the  last  assault,  directed  in  person  a 
counter  charge,  which  effected  the  capture  of  a  large  number  of 
prisoners  and  several  stands  of  colours.  The  assailants  gave  up  the 
contest  and  withdrew  from  our  front.  But  while  the  cheers  of  victory 
raised  on  the  right  were  extending  down  the  line,  the  left  of  the 


APPENDIX. 


(146 


army  bad  been  carried  by  assault,  and  the  day  was  lost.  All  that  now 
remained  to  the  victorious  right  was  to  cover  the  retreat  of  the  army. 
This  it  did  successfully.  If  the  right,  instead  of  the  left  of  the  army, 
had  been  carried,  it  would  have  given  the  enemy  possession  of  the 
only  line  of  retreat,  and  no  organised  body  of  the  Confederate  array 
could  have  escaped.  In  the  gloom  of  night-fall,  Cleburne’s  division, 
the  last  to  retire,  sadly  withdrew  from  the  ground  it  had  held  so 
gallantly,  and  brought  up  the  rear  of  the  retiring  army. 

The  enemy  next  day  organised  a  vigorous  pursuit ;  and  on  the 
morning  of  the  second  day,  its  advance,  Hooker’s  corps,  came  up  with 
Cleburne  at  Ringgold  Gap.  The  enemy  moved  to  attack  what  they 
supposed  a  demoralised  force  with  great  confidence.  Cleburne  had 
made  skilful  dispositions  to  receive  the  attack,  and  repulsed  it  with 
such  serious  loss,  that  pursuit  was  abandoned,  and  the  pursuing  force 
returned  to  its  lines.  Here  Cleburne  again  received  the  thanks  of 
Congress  for  meritorious  conduct. 

The  Southern  army  now  went  into  winter  quarters  at  Dalton,  in 
North  Georgia.  Cleburne's  division  occupied  an  outpost  at  Tunnel 
Hill.  He  devoted  the  winter  months  to  the  discipline  and  instruction 
of  his  troops,  and  revived  a  previously-adopted  system  of  daily  recita¬ 
tions  in  tactics  and  the  art  of  war.  He  himself  heard  the  recitations 
of  his  brigade  commanders,  a  quartette  of  lieutenants  worthy  their 
captain — the  stately  Granberry,  as  great  of  heart  as  of  frame,  a  noble 
type  of  the  Texan  soldier — Govan,  true  and  brave  as  he  was  courteous 
and  gentle  —  Polk,  young,  handsome,  dashing  and  fearless,  and- — 
Lowry,  the  parson  soldier,  who  preached  to  his  men  in  camp  and  fought 
them  in  the  field  with  equal  earnestness  and  effect.  These  brigadiers 
heard  the  recitations  of  the  regimental  officers,  and  they  in  turn  of 
the  company  officers.  The  thorough  instruction  thus  secured,  first 
applied  on  the  drill  ground,  and  then  tested  in  the  field,  gave  the 
troops  great  efficiency  in  action. 

About  •this  time  the  terms  of  enlistment  of  the  three  years’  men 
began  to  expire.  It  was  of  critical  importance  to  the  Southern  cause 
that  these  men  should  re-enlist.  The  greater  part  of  Cleburne’s  divi¬ 
sion  consisted  of  Arkansans  and  Texans,  who  were  separated  from 
their  homes  by  the  Mississippi  river.  This  river,  patroled  by  Federal 
gunboats,  was  an  insuperable  barrier  to  communicatior .  Many  of 
these  men  had  not  heard  from  their  homes  and  wives  and  little  ones 
for  three  years.  To  add  to  this,  the  occasional  reports  received  from 
the  trans-Mississippi  were  but  repeated  narratives  of  the  waste  and 
ravage  of  their  homes  by  the  Federal  soldiery.  No  husband  could 
know  that  his  wife  was  not  homeless — no  father,  that  his  children 
were  not  starving.  Every  instinct  that  appeals  most  powerfully  and 


APPENDIX. 


(147 

most  sacredly  to  manhood,  called  upon  these  men  to  return  to  their 
homes  as  soon  as  they  could  do  so  honourably.  Cleburne  was  a  man 
of  warm  sympathies,  and  he  felt  profoundly  the  extent  of  the  sacrifice 
his  men  were  called  upon  to  make  ;  but  with  Roman  virtue  he  set 
high  above  all  other  earthly  considerations  the  achievement  of  South¬ 
ern  independence.  He  adapted  himself  to  the  peculiar  conditions 
of  a  volunteer  soldiery,  and  laying  aside  the  commander,  he  ap¬ 
pealed  to  his  men,  as  a  man  and  a  comrade,  to  give  up  everything 
else  and  stand  by  the  cause  and  the  country.  He  succeeded  in 
inspiring  them  with  his  own  high  purpose  and  exalted  patriotism,  and 
the  result  was  the  early  and  unanimous  re-enlistment  of  his  division. 
The  Confederate  Congress  passed  later  a  Conscription  Act  that  retained 
the  three  years’  men  in  service  ;  but  those  whose  terms  of  enlistment 
expired  in  the  interim  would  meantime  have  returned  to  their  homes, 
and  the  moral  effect  of  voluntary  re-enlistment  would  have  been  lost 
to  the  cause. 

Cleburne  fully  comprehended  the  disproportion  in  the  military  re¬ 
sources  of  the  North  and  South,  and  was  the  first  to  point  out  the 
only  means  left  the  South  to  recruit  her  exhausted  numbers.  In 
January,  1804,  he  advocated  calling  in  the  negro  population  to  the 
aid  of  Southern  arms.  He  maintained  that  negroes  accustomed  to 
obedience  from  youth,  would,  under  the  officering  of  their  masters, 
make  even  better  soldiers  for  the  South  than  they  had  been  proven  to 
make  under  different  principles  of  organisation  for  the  North.  He 
insisted  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Southern  people  to  waive  con¬ 
siderations  of  property  and  prejudices  of  caste,  and  bring  to  their  aid 
this  powerful  auxiliary.  He  pointed  out  further  that  recruits  could 
be  obtained  on  the  borders,  who  would  otherwise  fall  into  the  hands 
of  the  Federal  armies,  and  be  converted  into  soldiers  to  swell  the 
ranks  of  our  enemies.  His  proposition  met  the  disfavour  of  both 
government  and  people.  A  year  later  it  was  adopted  by  Congress, 
with  the  approval  of  the  country,  when  it  was  too  late. 

The  following  extract  of  a  note  written  about  this  time  to  a  lady, 
a  refugee  from  Tennessee,  in  reply  to  some  expressions  complimentary 
to  himself,  and  to  a  hope  expressed  for  the  recovery  of  Tennessee,  is 
markedly  characteristic  of  the  man  : — 

‘To  my  noble  division  and  not  to  myself  belong  the  praises  for  the 
deeds  of  gallantry  you  mention.  Whatever  we  have  done,  however, 
has  been  more  than  repaid  by  the  generous  appreciation  of  oar  coun¬ 
trymen.  I  assure  you,  I  feel  the  same  ardent  longing  to  recover  the 
magnificent  forests  and  green  valleys  of  middle  Tennessee  that  you  do  ; 
and  I  live  in  the  hope  that  God  will  restore  them  to  our  arms.  I 
cannot  predict  when  the  time  will  be,  but  I  feel  that  it  is  certainly  in 


048 


APPENDIX. 


the  future.  We  may  have  to  make  still  greater  sacrifices — to  use  all 
the  means  that  God  has  given  us  ;  but  when  once  our  people,  or  the 
great  body  of  them,  sincerely  value  independence  above  every  oilier 
earthly  consideration ,  then  I  will  regard  our  success  as  an  accomplished 
fact. 


‘  Your  friend, 


‘  F.  R.  Cleburne/ 


In  a  brief  absence  from  Dalton,  with  one  exception  his  only  absence 
during  his  service,  Cleburne  formed  an  attachment  as  earnest  and 
true  as  his  own  noble  nature.  The  attachment  was  returned  with  the 
fervour  and  devotion  of  the  daughters  of  the  South.  Much  might  be  said 
of  this  episode — of  its  romantic  beginning,  and  its  tragic  end  5  but  the 
story  of  the  loved  and  lost  is  too  sacred  to  be  unveiled  to  the  public  eye. 

General  Bragg  had  been  relieved  of  the  command  of  the  Western 
army,  at  his  own  request,  after  the  battle  of  Missionary  Ridge ;  sub¬ 
sequently  General  J.  E.  Johnston  was  assigned  to  the  command.  To 
the  Federal  General  Sherman  was  given  the  command  of  the  armies 
assembled  at  Chattanooga  for  the  invasion  of  Georgia.  The  campaign 
opened  on  the  7th  of  May.  The  history  of  its  military  operations, 
under  the  conduct  of  General  Johnston,  is  the  record  of  a  struggle 
against  largely  superior  forces,  protracted  through  a  period  of  seventy 
days,  and  extending  over  a  hundred  miles  of  territory.  The  campaign 
was  characterised  by  brilliant  partial  engagements  and  continuous 
skirmishing,  the  aggregate  results  of  which  summed  up  into  heavy 
battles.  When  the  army  reached  Atlanta,  notwithstanding  the  dis¬ 
couragements  of  constant  fighting,  frequent  retreats,  and  loss  of 
territory,  it  was  with  unimpaired  organisation  and.  morale. 

In  this  campaign,  Cleburne’s  division  had  two  opportunities  of 
winning  special  distinction.  At  New  Hope  Church,  on  the  27  th  of  May, 
it  formed  the  right  of  the  army  in  two  lines,  the  first  entrenched.  In 
the  afternoon  of  that  day  the  4th  corps  of  the  Federal  army  advanced 
as  if  to  pass  its  right.  Cleburne  promply  brought  his  two  brigades 
of  the  second  line  into  the  first,  extending  it  to  face  the  Federal 
advance.  This  line  received  the  enemy’s  attack,  made  in  seven  lines, 
on  open  ground,  with  no  advantage  on  our  side  except  a  well-chosen 
position,  and  after  an  obstinate  fight  of  an  hour-and-a-half  repulsed  it 
Cleburne’s  troops  were  not  only  greatly  outnumbered,  but  were  out. 
numbered  by  resolute  soldiers.  At  the  end  of  the  combat  about  700 
Federal  dead  lay  within  thirty  or  forty  feet  of  his  line.  During  the 
action  a  Federal  colour-bearer  planted  his  colours  within  ten  paces  of 
Cleburne’s  line.  He  was  instantly  killed,  a  second  who  took  his  place 
shared  his  fate,  so  with  the  third  and  fourth  ;  the  fifth  bore  off  the  colours. 

We  read  of  little  more  effective  fighting  than  that  of  Cheatham’s 


APPENDIX. 


649 


and  Cleburne’s  divisions  in  repelling  an  assault  made  upon  them  by 
Blair’s  corps  of  the  Federal  army,  on  the  morning  of  the  27th  of 
June,  at  Kenesaw.  The  conduct  of  the  Federal  troops  on  that  occa¬ 
sion  was  as  resolute  as  in  the  instance  above.  When  they  fell  back, 
more  than  300  dead  bodies  were  counted  within  a  few  yards  of  Cle¬ 
burne’s  entrenchment,  some  of  them  lying  against  it.  His  loss  was 
two  killed  and  nine  wounded,  certainly  less  than  1  to  100  of  the 
enemy.  On  the  18th  of  July,  Gen.  Johnston  was  removed  from  the 
Western  army,  and  Gen.  Hood  promoted  to  its  command. 

On  the  21st,  while  the  army  was  occupying  a  line  encircling  the 
northern  front  of  Atlanta,  Cleburne’s  division  was  detached  to  oppose 
an  attempt  of  a  corps  of  the  enemy  to  turn  the  Confederate  right,  and 
penetrate  to  Atlanta  at  an  undefended  point.  His  troops,  newly 
arrived  at  the  point  of  apprehended  attack,  had  no  protection,  other 
than  the  men  provided  themselves  in  the  brief  time  allowed  for  pre¬ 
paration.  They  were  attacked  by  large  odds,  in  front  and  on  both 
tlanks.  At  one  time  Cleburne’s  line  was  so  completely  enfiladed,  that 
a  single  shot  of  the  enemy  killed  nineteen  men  in  one  company.  The 
position  was  maintained,  the  enemy  repulsed,  and  Atlanta  preserved. 
Cleburne  described  this  as  the  ‘bitterest  fight’  of  his  life.  On  the 
22d  of  July,  in  carrying  out  a  plan  of  general  attack,  my  corps,  con¬ 
sisting  then  of  Cleburne’s  and  three  other  divisions,  assaulted  and 
carried  the  entrenched  left  of  the  Federal  army.  The  troops  opposed 
to  us  were  McPherson’s  army,  of  which  Blair’s  corps  formed  a  part. 
On  the  27th  of  June,  Cleburne  had  repelled  an  assault  of  these  troops 
with  a  loss  signally  disproportionate.  It  bears  strong  testimony  to 
the  soldierly  qualities  of  the  Confederate  troops,  that  on  the  22d  of 
July,  they,  in  positions  exactly  reversed,  carried  works  equally  strong 
manned  by  the  same  troops.  The  loss  of  twenty-seven  of  about  thirty 
field  officers  in  Cleburne’s  division  in  this  action,  attests  the  gallantry 
of  the  officers  and  the  severity  of  the  conflict. 

.  On  the  26th  of  August,  the  Federal  commander,  Gen.  Sherman- 
commenced  to  turn  the  Confederate  position  at  Atlanta.  A  Federal 
force  made  a  detour,  and  occupied  a  position  at  Jonesboro’,  about  twenty- 
five  miles  south  of  Atlanta.  On  the  night  of  the  30th,  Gen.  Hood, 
remaining  in  Atlanta  with  one  corps  of  his  army,  sent  the  remaining 
two,  Lee’s  and  my  own,  under  my  command,  to  dislodge  this  force.  It 
was  found  to  consist  of  three  corps,  strongly  entrenched.  The  attack 
upon  it  was  unsuccessful.  Cleburne  commanded  my  corps  in  this 
action,  and  achieved  the  only  success  of  the  day,  the  capture  of  some 
guns  and  a  portion  of  the  enemy’s  works.  On  the  night  of  the  31st. 
Gen.  Hood  withdrew  Lee’s  corps  towards  Atlanta,  and  the  Federal 
commander  was  reinforced  by  three  addilional  corps,  so  that  on  the 

28 


APPENDIX. 


650 

morning  of  the  1st  of  September,  my  corps,  in  which  Cleburne  had 
renewed  his  place  as  division-commander,  was  confronted  by  six 
Federal  corps.  Gen.  Sherman  had,  meantime,  arrived  on  the  field, 
and  taken  command  in  person.  The  enemy  at  once  took  the  offensive. 
It  was  of  the  last  necessity  to  secure  the  safe  withdrawal  of  the 
remainder  of  the  army  from  Atlanta,  that  this  Confederate  corps 
should  hold  its  position  through  the  day.  The  odds  were  fearful,  and 
the  contest  that  followed  was  a  very  trying  one  ;  but  the  position  was 
held  against  the  attacks  made  upon  it  through  the  day,  and  the  re¬ 
mainder  of  tje  army  retired  in  safety  from  Atlanta.  Cleburne’s  services 
were  highly  valuable  in  the  operations  of  this  day. 

In  the  fall  and  winter  of  1864,  Gen.  Hood  marched  into  Tennessee. 
In  this  campaign,  at  the  battle  of  Franklin,  November  the  30th,  Cle¬ 
burne  fell  at  the  head  of  his  division.  He  was  one  of  thirteen  general 
officers  killed  or  disabled  in  the  combat.  He  had  impressed  upon  his 
officers  the  necessity  of  carrying  the  position  he  had  been  ordered  to 
attack,  a  very  strong  one,  at  all  cost.  The  troops  knew  from  fearful 
experience  of  their  own,  and  their  enemies,  what  it  was  to  assault 
such  works.  To  encourage  them,  Cleburne  led  them  in  person  to  (he 
ditch  of  the  opposing  line.  There  rider  and  horse,  each  pierced  by  a 
score  of  bullets,  fell  dead  against  the  reverse  of  the  enemy’s 
works. 

The  death  of  Cleburne  cast  a  deep  gloom  over  the  army  and  the 
country.  Eight  millions  of  people,  whose  hearts  had  learned  to  thrill 
at  his  name,  now  mourned  his  loss,  and  felt  there  was  none  to  take 
his  place.  The  division  with  which  his  fame  was  identified  merits 
more  particular  mention.  It  was  worthy  of  him,  and  he  had  made 
it  so.  Its  numbers  were  made  up,  and  its  honours  were  shared,  by 
citizens  of  five  communities— Arkansas,  Texas,  Alabama,  Mississippi, 
and  Tennessee.  In  it  was  also  one  regiment  of  Irishmen,  who,  on 
every  field,  illustrated  the  characteristics  of  the  race  that  furnishes 
the  world  with  soldiers.  No  one  of  its  regiments  but  bore  upon  its 
colours  the  significant  device  of  the  ‘crossed  cannon  inverted,’  and  the 
name  of  each  battle  in  which  it  had  been  engaged.  Prior  to  the 
battle  of  Shiloh,  a  blue  battle  flag  had  been  adopted  by  me  for  this 
division ;  aud  when  the  Confederate  battle  flag  became  the  national 
colours,  Cleburne’s  division,  at  its  urgent  request,  was  allowed  to  re¬ 
tain  its  own  bullet-riddled  battle  flags.  This  was  the  only  division  in 
(he  Confederate  service  allowed  to  carry  into  action  other  than  the 
national  colours;  and  friends  and  foes  soon  learned  to  watch  the  course 
of  the  blue  flag  that  marked  where  Cleburne  was  in  the  battle. 
Where  this  division  defended,  no  odds  broke  its  lines;  where  it 
attacked,  no  numbers  resisted  its  onslaught,  save  only  once; — and 


APPENDIX. 


C51 


there  is  the  grave  of  Cleburne  and  his  heroic  division.  In  this 
sketch  of  Cleburne  there  has  been  no  intention  of  disparaging,  by 
omission  or  otherwise,  the  merits  and  services  of  other  officers  and 
troops,  some  of  which  are  eminently  worthy  of  commemoration;  but 
the  limits  of  a  sketch,  personal  in  its  character,  and  giving  a  bare  out¬ 
line  of  the  military  operations  with  which  the  subject  of  it  was  con¬ 
nected,  necessarily  preclude  an  account  of  the  services,  however  great, 
of  others,  even  when  rendered  in  the  same  action. 

Cleburne  at  the  time  of  his  death  was  about  37  years  of  age.  He 
was  above  the  medium  height,  about  5  feet  11  inches,  and  though 
without  striking  personal  advantages,  would  have  arrested  attention 
from  a  close  observer  as  a  man  of  mark.  His  hair,  originally  black, 
became  grey  under  the  cares  and  fatigues  of  campaigning.  His  eyeg, 
a  clear  steel-grey  in  colour,  were  cold  and  abstracted  usually,  bat 
beamed  genially  in  seasons  of  social  intercourse,  and  blazed  fiercely  in 
moments  of  excitement.  A  good-sized  and  well-shaped  head,  promi¬ 
nent  features,  slightly  aquiline  nose,  thin,  greyish  whiskers  worn  on 
the  lip  and  chin,  and  an  expression  of  countenance  when  in  repos* 
rather  indicative  of  a  man  of  thought  than  action,  completes  tdM 
picture.  His  manners  were  distant  and  reserved  to  strangers,  bu« 
frank  and  winning  among  friends.  His  mind  was  of  a  highly  logicaa 
cast.  Before  expressing  an  opinion  upon  a  subject,  or  coming  to 
decision  in  any  conjuncture  of  circumstances,  he  wore  an  expression 
as  if  solving  a  mathematical  proposition.  The  conclusion  when 
reached,  was  always  stamped  with  mathematical  correctness.  Ho 
was  modest  as  a  woman,  but  not  wanting  in  that  fine  ambition  which 
ennobles  men.  Simple  in  his  tastes  and  habits,  and  utterly  regardless 
of  personal  comfort,  he  was  always  mindful  of  the  comfort  and  wel¬ 
fare  of  his  troops,  An  incident  which  occurred  at  Atlanta  illustrates 
his  habitual  humanity  to  prisoners.  A  captured  Federal  officer  was 
deprived  of  his  hat  and  blankets  by  a  needy  soldier  of  Cleburne's 
command,  and  Cleburne,  failing  to  detect  the  offender  or  to  recover 
the  property,  sent  the  officer  a  hat  of  his  own,  and  his  only  pair  of 
blankets. 

Among  his  attachments  was  a  very  strong  one  for  his  adjutant, 
General  Captain  Irving  A.  Buck,  a  boy  in  years,  but  a  man  in  all 
soldierly  qualities,  who  for  nearly  two  years  of  the  war,  shared  Cle¬ 
burne’s  labours  during  the  day  and  his  blankets  at  night. 

He  was  also  much  attached  to  his  youngest  brother,  who  was  killed 
in  one  of  Morgan’s  fights  in  South-Western  Virginia.  This  brother 
inherited  the  brave  qualities  that  belonged  to  the  name,  and  after 
being  promoted  from  the  ranks  for  ‘  distinguished  gallantry,’  fell  in  a 
charge  at  the  head  of  his  regiment. 


662 


APPENDIX. 


Cleburne  had  enough  accent  to  betray  his  Irish  birth.  This  accent, 
perceptible  in  ordinary  conversation,  grew  in  times  of  excitement 
into  a  strongly  marked  brogue.  He  was  accustomed  to  refer  to 
Ireland  as  the  ‘  old  country,’  and  always  in  the  tone  of  a  son  speak¬ 
ing  of  an  absent  mother.  He  possessed  considerable  powers  of  wit 
and  oratory,  the  national  heritage  of  the  Irish  people;  but  his  wit, 
perhaps  characterised  by  the  stern  influences  that  had  surrounded  his 
life,  was  rather  grim  than  humorous.  He  had  a  marked  literary 
turn,  and  was  singularly  well-versed  in  the  British  poets.  Indeed,  he 
had  at  one  period  of  his  life  wooed  the  muse  himself,  and  with  no 
inconsiderable  success,  as  was  evidenced  by  some  fragments  of  his 
poetical  labours  which  he  had  preserved. 

It  was  known  that  he  had  a  brother  in  the  Federal  army,  but  he 
seldom  mentioned  his  name,  and  never  without  classifying  him  with 
the  mass  of  the  Irish  who  had  espoused  the  Federal  cause,  of  whom 
he  always  spoke  in  terms  of  strong  indignation.  His  high  integrity 
revolted  at  the  want  of  inconsistency  and  morality  shown  in  the  course 
of  that  class  of  Irish  who,  invoking  the  sympathies  of  the  world  in 
behalf  of  ‘  oppressed  Ireland,’  gave  the  powerful  aid  of  their  arms  to 
enslave  another  people. 

Cleburne's  remains  were  buried  after  the  battle  of  Franklin,  and 
yet  rest  in  the  Polk  Cemetery,  near  Columbia,  Tennessee,  the  most 
beautiful  of  the  many  beautiful  spots  in  the  valley  of  the  Tennessee. 
Generals  Granberry  and  Strahl,  brave  comrades  who  fell  in  the  same 
action,  were  buried  at  his  side.  On  the  march  to  Franklin,  a  few 
days  before  his  death,  Cleburne  halted  at  this  point,  and  in  one  of  the 
gentle  moods  of  the  man  that  sometimes  softened  the  mien  of  the 
soldier,  gazed  a  moment  in  silence  upon  the  scene,  and  turning  to 
r  ome  members  of  his  staff  said,  ‘It  is  almost  worth  dying  to  rest  in 
so  sweet  a  spot.’ 

It  was  in  remembrance  of  these  words  that  their  suggestion  was 
carried  out  in  the  choice  of  his  burial-place.  In  this  cemetery  is  set  apart 
a  division  called  the  ‘  Bishops’ Corner.’  Here  were  buried  the  remains 
of  the  late  Right  Rev.  Bishop  Otey  of  Tennessee — here  are  to  be 
placed  the  ashes  of  the  heroic  bishop,  General  Leonidas  Polk,  and 
here  it  is  purposed  that  the  tombs  of  the  future  bishops  of  Tennessee 
shall  be*  ranged  beside  these  illustrious  names.  In  this  spot,  where 
nature  has  lavished  her  wealth  of  grace  and  beauty,  in  ground  con¬ 
secrated  by  the  dust  of  illustrious  patriots,  churchmen,  and  warriors — 
in  the  bosom  of  the  State  he  did  so  much  to  defend,  within  whose 
borders  he  first  guided  his  charging  lines  to  victory,  and  on  whose 
soil  he  finally  yielded  to  the  cause  the  lasT  and  all  a  patriot  soldier 
can  give — rests  what  was  mortal  of  Patrick  Cleburne,  and  will  rest 


APPENDIX. 


653 


until  his  adopted  State  shall  claim  his  ashes,  and  raise  above  them 
monumental  honours  to  the  virtues  of  her  truest  citizen,  her  noblest 
champion,  her  greatest  soldier. 

Cleburne  had  often  expressed  the  hope  that  he  might  not  survive 
th'i  independence  of  the  South.  Heaven  heard  the  prayer,  and  spared 
him  this  pang.  He  fell  before  the  banner  he  had  so  often  guided  to 
victory  was  furled — before  the  people  he  fought  for  were  crushed — 
before  the  cause  he  loved  was  lost. 

Two  continents  now  claim  his  name  ;  eight  millions  of  people 
revere  his  memory  5  two  great  communities  raise  monuments  to  his 
virtues — and  history  will  take  up  his  fame,  and  hand  it  down  to  time 
for  exampling,  wherever  a  courage  without  stain,  a  manhood  with¬ 
out  blemish,  an  integrity  that  knew  no  compromise,  and  a  patriotism 
that  withheld  no  sacrifice,  are  honoured  of  mankind. 


Sklma,  Alabama  :  May  1,  1867. 


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This  book  is  due  at  the  LOUIS  R.  WILSON  LIBRARY  on  the 
last  date  stamped  under  “Date  Due.”  If  not  on  hold  it  may  be 
renewed  by  bringing  it  to  the  library. 


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